While reading this book I was surprised and yet not surprised at the same time that this was so far the shortest chapter. Schwab makes the obvious conclusion that there is a chance the US dollar will no longer be the world reserve currency. He discounts new forms of currency like Bitcoin but towards the end mentions the Chinese renminbi (RMB) as a possible replacement. I’m not sure if this is a smoke screen for what appears to already be happening with some countries suggesting copying the Chinese model of doing Social Credit Scores and moving all commerce to a digital format. For years now Russia and China have been buying up physical gold and silver, paying almost double in some situations above spot price, and building vaults in their national banks to house it in. Could there be a digital currency backed by gold and silver in the future? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Schwab closes the chapter by saying that the chance of the dollar losing its dominance is unlikely. But this also follows a paragraph talking about the printing of money and how inflation will pop up its ugly head as the US continues to create more dollars to keep programs going and tax revenue declines due to Covid-19. Regardless of the pandemic the odds of the US becoming insolvent were high from zero interest rates, poor (shitty) book keeping, lack of tax revenue, and an economy that has been bleeding money into China since the 1990’s. Companies like Walmart have supported the Chinese Communist Party for decades by destroying local economies throughout the US, buying cheap products from China and shipping US dollars to China to pay for cheap labor and funding China’s expanse across the globe. Those dollars were also used to buy US debt through the Federal Reserve making China a shareholder in the US government by being a partial owner of the treasury credit card. This impacts US foreign policy in obvious ways. Recently President Biden was asked about the concentration camps in China and what US policy was on it? “They have a different culture from us,” was the response from the president. When it comes to congress or the current president the policy has been obvious, let China do what they want because they own us. I long for the days when we had a leader that referred to the CCP as “motherfuckers.” Things drastically changed in a matter of weeks.

Whether Schwab wants to say it or not the day of the dollar is coming to a close. It would appear that those above us on the income ladder agree as certain commodities are bought up and stored away for a rainy day. Billionaires are buying land, companies, art, precious metals, antiques, and anything else that will increase or hold its value over time. Keep in mind that physical items are easier to transport wealth than actual money. A woman wearing a $10,000 neckless doesn’t have to claim it like she would if it was a briefcase filled with cash. Those who can afford it are buying Bitcoin, driving the price to $50,000 per coin, last I checked. The desire to move and own land caused a housing boom during Covid-19 that is finally coming to a close. The lack of employment and no support from the government to the middle or lower class kept people in dire straits looking at eviction in the coming months along with massive amounts of debt from the pandemic, all of this due to government policies, not the pandemic.

The mismanagement of the US dollar is not due to the pandemic as Schwab would like to suggest but the poor policies that have been in place since the year 2000. If any event was to blame for the downfall of the dollar it would be 9-11 not Covid-19. If anything, Covid-19 is the final nail in the coffin not the cause of its decline.