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Comment by fredliu | Hacker News Reader

Silly question: is the US dollar being the world's go-to currency part of the US's national interests? If so, how big of an interest is that to the US? If "yes", and "very" are the answers, I wonder if Yuan can ever replace US dollar without a fight.

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Maybe. A lot of people assume that it is, but there isn't really good evidence that that's the case. The clear cut benefit is that drug dealers and rich Russians keep big stacks of $100 bills in vaults, but besides that it gets murkier. That said the US government certainly seems to think it is in our interest and work to maintain it.

It's totally in the interests of the US to have people, governments and companies to give the US cash in exchange for bonds instead of giving that cash to other governments, like China.

Compared to giving the US cash in exchange for goods and services, though? That's a much murkier comparison.

It is NOT in US interests. It is an exorbitant burden as explained by Michael Pettis here: http://blog.mpettis.com/2014/10/are-we-starting-to-see-why-i...

In short, US debt and money supply cannot keep pace with global asset growth. One or the other must (and is) giving way.

It's in the interests of consumers and importers, and against the interests of producers and exporters. Given that 70% of GDP is consumption, consumers together have much more political and economic power than producers, so their interests tend to prevail when that interest is collective and unitary.

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