Bitcoin & the Currency Wars with Lyn Alden - WBD443

Location: New York
Date: Wednesday 8th December
Project: lynalden.com
Role: Macroeconomist


These are strange times. The US Dollar’s established role as the
global reserve currency is under threat from competing powers,
most notably China. However, at the same time, Bitcoin, a nascent
and denigrated decentralized digital asset, has grown so rapidly
it is now being seriously considered as a potential competitor to
all nation-state currencies.


The dominant international role of the US Dollar wasn’t
inevitable; it was the result of deliberate and coordinated
efforts to ensure it replaced gold as the backstop for global
economic activity. These measures have had relatively short term
benefits for some powerful groups within society but at the
expense of the cohesion of the US nation-state and geopolitical
freedoms.


Inevitably “all pegs break”, and thus, due to various factors,
the US dollar is coming under increasing pressure: declining
international interest in taking on US debt; increasing
geopolitical competition; and domestic fatigue with the unequal
societal consequences of having monetary dominance. 


Yet, instead of a new nation-state currency replacing the US
Dollar, Bitcoin has the potential to be a viable hard money
replacement. 


The currencies of the world are in flux. 


In this interview, I talk to macroeconomist and investment
strategist Lyn Alden. We discuss currency wars, positive and
negative consequences for the US having a global reserve
currency, the consolidation of global currencies and whether
Bitcoin can become an alternative reserve currency.