Good morning. It is Sunday, July 13th. 81 years ago next Saturday, on July 22nd, 1944,

leaders of 44 allied nations were waking up at the historic Grand Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire.

They'd spent a busy few days there, and on that particular day, the effort to create a new

post-war economic order would culminate in the signing of an unprecedented agreement, one which

would establish for the world of money what World War II established for the world of military

power,

that the U.S. was the global leader.

They all met in the hotel's famous gold room to sign the Bretton Woods Agreement and usher

in the era of U.S. dominance. Took another 20 years or so, but by the early 1970s, the U.S.

dollar had become the de facto currency

for all important trade around the world. Many countries pegged their own currencies to the

U.S. dollar. All major global commodities, including oil, gold, and produce are now traded

in U.S. dollars. The agreement signed that day in Bretton Woods also created key institutions

like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to help stabilize the global financial system.

Later, my next guest would serve as the chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

Today, the Federal Reserve estimates that in recent decades, the dollar has been involved in about 90% of global foreign exchange transactions and over 70%

of trade with Asia alone. The reserve currency status keeps U.S. borrowing costs low. It supports

our financial markets, and most importantly, it gives the United States enormous, enormous

geopolitical power. But today we're witnessing an historic decline

in the value of the dollar. Over the past six months, the dollar has lost more than 10% of its

value against other major currencies, a magnitude of a drop that we have not seen since 1973.

Right now, the value of the U.S. dollar against a basket of important global currencies

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