KEY POINTS
While de-dollarization is not exactly a new phenomenon, the narrative has changed.
De-dollarization in ASEAN is expected to pick up pace, according to the Bank of America.
Some Asian economies have the greatest potential to repatriate their foreign earnings or assets back to their local currencies.
That doesn’t surprise me, because Drump’s absurd import tariffs are interpreted by numerous economists as a sign that the US is actually bankrupt.
Judging by its national debt and weak economy, the US would probably have been bankrupt years ago if the dollar weren’t a reserve currency. That’s precisely why it’s so absurd.
The so-called Mar-a-Lago Accord, which is anything but an agreement, seems to me to be a desperate attempt at blackmail, playing off the (conventional) military power of the United States against the rest of the world - as far as I know, most economists consider this to be completely bonkers.
I, on the other hand, think that this serves two main purposes: to maintain the illusion among the US population that the US is still the superpower it was in the 1980s (it is not), and to personally enrich the US president and his partners.