Weaponizing the Dollar with Saleha Mohsin
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Summary
Since World War II, the United States and its currency, the dollar, have come to play a central role in the broader global economy. And in recent decades, policymakers have used this role as a weapon, cutting off access to malign actors and punishing those who act contrary to U.S. national security interests. But cultivating such primacy has proven to be a double-edged sword, with more complicated ramifications for many Americans.
In her new book “Paper Soldiers: How the Weaponization of the Dollar Changed the World Order,” Bloomberg reporter Saleha Mohsin digs into the history of the dollar’s role in the global economy and what its increasing weaponization may mean moving forward. Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson recently joined Mohsin to discuss her new book and what we should all know about the new economic and political moment we are living through.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfair Podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com |
| 0:16.4 | slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.0 | Do you hear that? It might sound like nothing to you, but it's actually the sound of nuclear, wind and solar energy. |
| 0:43.0 | At EDF, we're busy generating more British zero carbon |
| 0:47.0 | and electricity than anyone to help keep future energy costs down for everyone |
| 0:51.0 | and help cut UK carbon emissions to nothing. |
| 0:54.0 | Sound good to you? |
| 0:56.0 | Find out more about our zero carbon generation at EDF Energy.com slash Help in Britain. It came to me like this, you know, I would hear Treasury secretaries and Treasury officials and former officials say, |
| 1:16.0 | well, nothing can happen to the dollar as long as the U.S. is strong. |
| 1:21.0 | And I had Hank Paulson, who was George W Bush's third Treasury Secretary, and |
| 1:26.6 | steered the country through the global financial crisis in 2008 and onward for a few years. He said this to me. He said that no matter what what |
| 1:36.8 | happens in the world if the US economy is strong, no one can touch us. |
| 1:42.6 | And I realized when I heard him say it directly to me |
| 1:47.0 | with this context in my head about de-dollarization, |
| 1:51.0 | threats from abroad, you know, the Chinese Yuan or the euro becoming more |
| 1:56.1 | dominant than the dollar, or other countries finding ways to trade amongst themselves |
| 2:01.7 | outside of the dollar, none of that really will affect us |
| 2:07.2 | if the US itself is strong. |
| 2:11.5 | I'm Scott R Anderson and this is the Law Fair Podcast for March 20th, 2024. |
| 2:16.7 | Since World War II, the United States and its currency, The Dollar, have come to play a central |
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