[gosub100]

The older I get the more I wonder if this "most powerful force" is simply to intimidate other nations to using dollars, because if they don't, our currency will lose value and we will implode under our $33T in national debt.

I mean I want to believe as much as the next person that it's to "ensure stability in $REGION" or to "provide aid to starving children" or whatever spin you see from time to time.

I also think that human suffering is a zero-sum game. It's trite to keep repeating it, but in the US, we spend trillions on the military but refuse to pay for our citizens medical needs (or homeless, or other $HUMANITARIAN_THING). It's impossible to measure, but I suspect that the slow, steady burn of our own citizens from this inequality could easily rival the suffering and death from having a skirmish or small war in $DISTANT_REGION.

[matheusmoreira]

Brazil and China are trying to transact without dollars. We'll see how that goes.