I've seen a lot of speculation like this article, something to the effect of "these sanctions will weaken the international power of the U.S. dollar by forcing

I've seen a lot of speculation like this article, something to the effect of "these sanctions will weaken the international power of the U.S. dollar by forcing more countries to consider non-dollar monetary systems." It's a reasonable concern. But I think it's important to consider the reasons why that might not happen. Alan Cole from Full Stack Economics provides a couple good general thoughts on sanctions here [1], but I'll highlight my favorite: > The fact is that the US has most of the world’s largest economies on its side. China is the world’s second largest economy at nominal exchange rates, and Russia is about eleventh. The top ten also include Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Canada, and South Korea, all of which are actively participating in the anti-Russia sanctions. > Financial commentators love talking about the dollar losing its status as reserve currency, because it gives them a permission structure to wildly speculate. But there is little constituency for a Russia-friendly financial system among the world’s largest economies. And for countries seeking a relatively neutral and rules-based system free of geopolitics, China isn’t a very good alternative anyway. (It has a variety of idiosyncratic foreign policy demands of its own, and regularly uses economic might to help reinforce them.) The fact is that a huge majority of the world's GDP is actively in support of of these sanctions. This is not some arbitrary, capricious act – Russia is engaged in the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state. If you want to look at things from a purely economic standpoint, there is very little that is more destructive to global economic prosperity than large-scale, boots-on-the-ground war. [1] https://fullstackeconomics.com/five-reasons-the-sanctions-are-working/ https://fullstackeconomics.com/five-reasons-the-sanctions-ar...