Paul Blustein

Donald Trump announces 100% tariff on branded pharmaceutical products The US president also unveiled levies on heavy trucks, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities

got some bad news for anyone who voted for Trump because he promised to bring down prices
www.ft.com/content/dd6d...

It's true & reflective of Trump's terrible economic policies, but it's also important to zoom out & remember that the level of the exchange rate is still near historic highs over the last two decades, & we've seen large-scale depreciations before that did not signal the end of dollar hegemony.

...have I got a book for you!

If the reasoning strikes you as tenuous--or (dare I say) moronic...

As the author of KING DOLLAR, which @B_Eichengreen would probably deem “Panglossian” for its conclusions, I guess I’d better say why I differ with him here.
(Thread, first posted in the other place)
www.wsj.com/finance/curr...

Plus, there’s the dedication, in which I continue to take fiendish delight.
/end

Time will tell. Whatever happens, I humbly submit that my book has a lot to offer, not least its explanation of how $-based sanctions work and its overarching theme, that the Spider-Man adage applies to the $—with great power comes great responsibility.

Strange as this may sound, I hope my book is wrong. Trump loves coercing other countries with tariffs, and dollar dominance gives him an even more formidable weapon in the form of sanctions. I wish he didn’t have such power, but no good will come from pretending that it ain’t so.

So doesn’t it give me pause that a scholar of his expertise and stature is taking issue with a central premise of my book? Of course it does, but I still think I’m right, and there are other knowledgeable experts in the field who agree.

I’ve learned more about the dollar from @B_Eichengreen than from anyone else—his work is cited 20 times in the endnotes to my book! Most of my recent books have drawn heavily on his brilliant insights—about financial crises, the international monetary system, etc.

But that doesn’t mean the dollar will lose the unique role it plays in intl transactions. Call me Panglossian all you like, but I remain steadfast in my conviction that the $ will retain that status, for reasons spelled out in this interview for @IntlEconomy.

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zuhjv...

Don’t get me wrong: alarm over the recklessness of Trump’s policies strikes me as fully warranted. A severe financial crisis could well be in the offing, and even if that doesn’t happen, America will end up considerably less prosperous than it would be otherwise.

His tale is fascinating, recounted with characteristic elegance. But the events he cites came just at the outset of the dollar’s rise to dominance, way before the entrenchment of its status.
So should it shake confidence in the $’s intl role? Not much, IMHO.

“Panglossian” is the word @B_Eichengreen applies to the view that USD dominance is secure b/c it has held that status for many decades and is widely used.
Look at the 1930s, when bad policy led to loss of $ primacy, he writes—it could happen again, given what Trump & Co. are doing.

I do so with considerable trepidation, because there are few if any economists whom I hold in higher esteem.
(He’s not here on bsky, only on the other place.)

As the author of KING DOLLAR, which @B_Eichengreen would probably deem “Panglossian” for its conclusions, I guess I’d better say why I differ with him here.
(Thread, first posted in the other place)
www.wsj.com/finance/curr...

Thank you, @mariacrawford.bsky.social -- from my home in Japan, bowing as I type the words! (Eddie Fishman will hopefully find some other means of expressing his gratitude, since he's not in Japan.)

Term premium is the added compensation that investors demand for fear that appointees to a nominally independent central bank might withdraw or be fired on some pretext before the end of their term.

Lest there be any misunderstanding (I was queried), the accolade my book received in FP was highly gratifying!
I mentioned the praise also heaped on the books by Rogoff and Fishman to avoid excessive self-aggrandizement--although I realize self-aggrandizement is not unheard-of on this site.

The Future of the Dollar Lies Within Dollar dominance is here to stay, if the United States can keep it.

The adjectives used to laud my book are a tad less glowing than the ones used for Ken Rogoff's book and Eddie Fishman's book, but I'm not complaining!
(And I'm honored to be in Ken and Eddie's distinguished company.)
foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/22/t...

Look what came in the mail! Say, have you ever wondered what "To my grandchildren, whom I will always love unconditionally even if they grow up to like crypto" looks like in Korean? Well, now you know!

Most of you on this site who are even slightly interested in trade probably know already how trenchant @alanbeattie.bsky.social's work is, but this column is especially deserving of commendation.

My praise and gratitude are delayed b/c for the past 2 weeks I've been squiring around family members visiting Japan, where I live. And the visitors included those featured in the book's dedication: "To my grandchildren, whom I will always love unconditionally, even if they grow up to like crypto."

An excellent article by @mcopelov.bsky.social, and I would say so even if it didn't include a nice shout-out for my book!
www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

For more on why you should be skeptical of dollar doomsaying, have I got a book for you!

It’s a run to hedge the dollar, not a run on the dollar Hedge hogging

This can’t possibly be true—I’ve been told repeatedly that the market turmoil in April was a clear harbinger that dollar dominance is doomed.

www.ft.com/content/6601...

Will King Dollar Reign Forever? | Samuel Gregg The US government’s inability to contain the growth of its public debt is one of the threats to the dollar's global reserve status.

How gratifying to learn that my work is read (and appreciated) by such a thoughtful and knowledgeable scholar!
www.civitasinstitute.org/research/wil...

Molly White, whose Citation Needed newsletter I mentioned above, shares Massad’s views, writing by email: Trump has made hundreds of millions of dollars from hawking a memecoin — that is, a crypto token that doesn’t even try to pretend to have some underlying value or purpose — to his followers and to those hoping to buy influence with the president. There is really no comparison in American history to the blatant corruption of Trump’s pay-for-access memecoin dinner, where hundreds of primarily foreign nationals spent anywhere from $55,000 to more than $37 million for a ticket to the event. The crypto billionaire Justin Sun was the top memecoin holder at the dinner, and earlier this month announced he plans to buy another $100 million $TRUMP.

There is really no comparison in American history to the blatant corruption.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/o...

Thanks!

To be clear, the complaint about my clicking speed is made by the Barron's website.