Could the Dollar Regain Supremacy?

Abstract

The fact that it was the British Governor of the IMF who took the initiative for the adoption of SDRs as the international reserve currency implied a final gesture completing sterling’s abdication from that role. It seems possible and even probable, however, that Britain sponsored the SDR system in full agreement with the United States, reached prior to Mr Barber’s announcement. Presumably the reason why it was not Mr Connally who proposed the reform was that the United States was still too dollar-proud to bring herself to performing such an act of abdication in the blaze of international publicity. Even though various recent American official pronouncements indicate that the Nixon Administration is fully alive to the disadvantages and risks involved in possessing the leading international currency, it is not likely to remain the official policy to abandon that role of the dollar altogether and forever.