Presumably, for the dollar to be the world’s reserve currency the world needs to have sufficient excess reserves to be able to buy lots of US Treasuries. If th

Presumably, for the dollar to be the world’s reserve currency the world needs to have sufficient excess reserves to be able to buy lots of US Treasuries. If there were some event or events that causes a dramatic contraction in world trade and set off financial crises around the world, many countries may be unable to buy treasuries in the same quantity. A potentially scary thought exercise may be to figure out what the collective reduction in treasury purchases needs to be before it all blows up. I have no clue what that number may be. But I have a feeling that if the dollar ceases to be the reserve currency, it will not be because the world has decided on something else.