The Dollar Kill-Switch: Edward Fishman on How The U.S. Controls The Global Economy

Bankless

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Tech News, News, Technology

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 94 minutes

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Summary

Can a country wage war without ever firing a bullet? In this episode of Bankless, we uncover the surprising truth: America’s most powerful weapon isn’t its military - it’s the dollar. Joining us is Edward Fishman, a former State Department official and the author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare. He explains how U.S. sanctions work, why they’re so effective, and what happens when countries try to escape them. From Iran and Russia to the rise of stablecoins and China’s digital yuan, we dive deep into the geopolitical power of financial infrastructure and crypto’s growing role in rewriting the rules. If you want to understand the silent machinery behind global power, and why crypto might be the next battleground - don’t miss this one. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi https://bankless.cc/Frax 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🟠BINANCE | THE WORLDS #1 CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://bankless.cc/binance 🦎COINGECKO API | REAL-TIME CRYPTO PRICE & MARKET DATA https://bankless.cc/coingecko --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 5:51 Sanctions 101 8:32 The History of Economic Warfare 17:03 When Sanctions Precede War 22:27 Life After Dollar Disconnection 31:28 Sanctioning Russia: Methods & Lessons 43:49 Measuring Sanctions’ Effectiveness 49:20 The Strategic Tradeoffs of Sanctions 57:28 The Rise of Dollar Dominance 1:04:05 Unseen Costs of Sanction Power 1:08:15 Shifting Global Economic Power 1:15:47 Risks to U.S. Economic Leadership 1:20:43 Stablecoins as U.S. Leverage 1:28:13 Crypto’s Role in Sanction Evasion ------ RESOURCES Edward Fishman https://x.com/edwardfishman Edward Fishman’s “Chokepoints” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think that we are at the precipice of a major shift in terms of how cross-border payments work.
0:05.2	China has by far the biggest and most advanced state-backed project to do this through both
0:11.5	the ECNY as well as Embridge, this platform that they built with other central banks.
0:16.4	And so the question is, can the U.S. retain its lead?
0:22.2	Welcome to Bankless, where today we explore the frontier of economic sanctions and internet money.
0:28.4	An interesting combination.
0:29.9	This is Ryan Sean Adams.
0:31.2	I'm here to help you become more bankless.
0:34.6	I've always wanted to do a deep dive in this somewhat nerdy topic. This is America's
0:39.9	superpower of economic sanctions. And our guest today, Edward Fishman, provides a crash course on this.
0:46.4	Make no mistake, this is very much a crypto topic because the power of the U.S. to sanction
0:51.7	comes from the dominance of the dollar. This is a topic we
0:54.9	often discuss on bankless. And not only the dominance of the dollar, but the dominance of the
1:00.7	U.S. banking system, 90% of all transactions are settled in the dollar today. But in the future,
1:07.2	Edward thinks countries will have more than one option. They can either stay in the
1:10.8	U.S. system, they can move to the new Chinese digital currency, or, and this is the most interesting,
1:16.6	they can set up shop in crypto, the internet money system. A few things we discuss. Why sanctions
1:22.2	are more powerful than tanks and missiles? The 2015 Iran sanctions? What it feels like to be cut off from the dollar,
1:29.7	the 2022 Russia sanctions, how Ed found himself on Russia's sanction list, the effectiveness
1:35.8	of sanctions, U.S. dollar supremacy, stable coins as America's best hope, and whether Ed thinks
1:43.1	crypto is a tool to evade sanctions or a tool for
1:47.2	economic freedom. Please enjoy this conversation with Edward Fishman on America's financial
	...

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