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Here's your host, NLW.

Welcome back to The Breakdown.

It is Wednesday, May 20th, and guys, I am so excited to share this conversation with you.

Regular listeners will know that I've been spending a lot

of time recently on asking questions about the fundamental design of the global monetary order,

specifically as it relates to the place of the U.S. dollar in that system. I think it's one of the most

essential questions we have right now is whether the dollar is still serving both the

U.S. and the world as the world's reserve currency. This question in some ways, I think, was part of

the provocation behind Libra. It was the provocation behind Mark Carney's idea of a synthetic

hegemonic currency that he proposed at Jackson Hole last year. It is part and parcel of China's push for a digital

yuan. And I think it has massive implications around the world as we see the dollar react to

the context of the COVID-19 crisis. At the end of March, I noticed a thread from Lynn Alden that

totally knocked my socks off that related to the dollar.

It introduced a set of concepts that are not normally talked about as it relates to the dollar,

including the status of creditor and debtor nations and what trade imbalances between people

actually do to the dollar conversation. I knew as soon as I read this that I really wanted Lynn to

join to share her expertise about the dollar and about the economy writ large. And man,

was I, my expectations were exceeded. Let's just put it that way. Lynn Alden is the founder

of Lynn Alden Investment Strategy. She's been called by people like George Gammon a fintwit rock star,

...