The US derives enormous economic benefits from issuing the dominant global currency. This exorbitant privilege has been put at risk by the combination of the 2022 sanctions against Russia and new technological developments, specifically Central Bank Digital Currencies. CBDCs promise faster,...

In this paper we highlight a new channel through which dollar fluctuations can become a self-fulfilling pro-cyclical force. We call this mechanism “Imperial Circle” as it makes the dollar the dominant macroeconomic variable in the context of the current international monetary system. At the...