- The Death of the Dollar
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- The 100-Year Curse and the Life Cycle of World Money
The 100-Year Curse and the Life Cycle of World Money
It’s 1914 in London.
The British pound is the undisputed king of global trade.
Ships bearing the Union Jack carry goods to every corner of the planet.
City of London bankers boast that the pound’s dominance is eternal.
Within 50 years, it’s gone.
Not the pound itself — but its crown. The U.S. dollar took its place. And the cycle began again.
The Pattern No One Talks About
If you zoom out far enough, you’ll see it.
Every reserve currency in history — the world’s preferred store of value and medium of exchange — has a lifespan of roughly 80–110 years (give or take a few decades).
Here’s the rough timeline:
Currency | Rise to Power | Peak | Decline |
|---|---|---|---|
Spanish Real | late 1400s | 1500s | early 1600s |
Dutch Guilder | early 1600s | mid 1600s | early 1700s |
French Livre | early 1700s | mid 1700s | late 1700s |
British Pound | early 1800s | late 1800s | mid 1900s |
U.S. Dollar | 1944 | 1990s–2000s | ??? |
Right now? We’re 81 years in.
Why They All Fall
It’s not magic. It’s math and human behavior.
Dominance Brings Privilege. A strong currency lets you borrow cheaply, run deficits, and fund expansion.
Privilege Breeds Complacency. Empires overextend — militarily, financially, politically.
Competitors Rise. New trade hubs emerge. Alternative payment systems develop. The “captive” audience for your currency starts to shrink.
Debt and Inflation Erode Trust. Once the world doubts your ability to keep promises, the exit doors open.
Where the Dollar Stands
The U.S. dollar became the reserve currency at Bretton Woods in 1944.
It survived Nixon breaking the gold link in 1971. And it peaked in the unipolar moment of the 1990s.
Now?
Central banks are buying gold at the fastest pace in 55 years.
BRICS nations are building trade settlement systems outside the dollar.
U.S. debt is climbing faster than GDP growth.
The movie isn’t over — but we might be in the third act.
What History Teaches Us
If the pattern holds, we don’t need to panic.
We need to prepare.
Diversify across assets and geographies.
Understand that a reserve currency’s decline is a process, not an event.
Watch for inflection points — sudden policy shifts, trade bloc announcements, and large-scale reserve sales.
Because one thing is certain…
The next global reserve currency is already being born.
And you probably won’t recognize it when you first see it.
—DOTD