The vice president thinks the dollar’s global status is a curse. Even if he were right, I ask in today’s column, what’s the U.S. government supposed to do about it?
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, recently remarked that “if we’re not the strongest military in 25 years and the strongest economy, we won’t be the reserve currency either.” That’s presumably not the way most Americans would want to escape the disadvantages of King Dollar.
Some Trump administration officials, such as former economic adviser Stephen Miran, have suggested that the U.S. “impose a user fee on foreign official holders of Treasury securities.” That might drive the dollar down. But since U.S. citizens would need to buy more Treasurys, they would lend less to the private sector. Investment would suffer. . . .