This research project recounts the intellectual history of the dollar as an international reserve currency, starting with World War I, which brought the international gold standard to an end, and continuing all the way up to the present global financial crisis.
Just as the Fed’s response to the financial crisis of 2007 provided both the opportunity and lens for reconceptualizing a century of domestic monetary experience, so too the global response to the crisis—first the “dollar shortage” problem, now the strains in the Euro area, perhaps tomorrow the renminbi—provides both the opportunity and lens for reconceptualizing a century of international monetary experience. This project offers a new window on the larger trend toward globalization, particularly financial globalization, and the attendant shift from a bank-based credit system to a market-based credit system.
