Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System

In Exorbitant Privilege, one of the world's foremost economists, Barry Eichengreen, traces the historical rise of the dollar to international prominence. He shows how the greenback dominated internationally in the second half of the twentieth century for the same reasons that the United States dominated the global economy. But now, with the rise of China, and other emerging economies, America no longer towers over the global economy. It follows, Eichengreen argues, that the dollar will not be as dominant. But this does not mean that the coming changes will necessarily be sudden and dire--or that the dollar is doomed to lose its international status. Challenging the presumption that there is room for only one true global currency--either the dollar or something else--Eichengreen shows that several currencies have shared this international role over long periods. What was true in the distant past will be true, once again, in the not-too-distant future. With a new afterword that covers the Euro crisis and the U.S. debt-ceiling controversy, Exorbitant Privilege challenges both those who warn that the dollar is doomed and those who regard its continuing dominance as inevitable.

Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Political Science and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. His previous books include The European Economy Since 1945, Global Imbalances and the Lessons of Bretton Woods, Capital Flows and Crises, and Financial Crises and What to Do About Them. He has written for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and other publications.