What explains the US dollar's role in the global economy and the tensions affecting its likely persistence? Most analyses start from Triffin's dilemma, which accurately captured specific but partial tensions of a global monetary system based on essentially fixed exchange rates, gold backing for...

This Working Paper provides a concrete illustration of how the existing international financial architecture could be activated more fully to mobilize the large sums required to respond decisively to the “great divergence” in COVID-19 crisis recovery between advanced and developing countries...