Our Dollar, Your Problem by Kenneth Rogoff

After engaged discussions about Karys and her world, feeling empowered by having read about and discussed her warrior-stance towards her circumstances, we judged ourselves ready for expanding our toolbox for understanding and taking on our own world.

Someone recognized the name Rogoff on the list of book suggestions, explaining that this guy has done work that has influenced European nation economies for many years, and we found this a good reason for reading his recent book.

Rogoff is a financial economist with education from Yale and a PhD from MIT, currently at Allied Social Science Associations and has held the position of Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund for a quarter of a century ago. In the current book Rogoff animates, drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, the remarkable postwar run of the dollar and the challenges it faces today from crypto and the Chinese yuan, the end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, political instability, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc. He argues that it cannot be taken for granted that the Pax Dollar era will last indefinitely, not only because many countries are deeply frustrated with the system, but also because overconfidence and arrogance can lead to unforced errors. Rogoff shows how America’s outsized power and exorbitant privilege can spur financial instability - both outside and inside the US.

The full sales pitch goes something like this:
``Our Dollar, Your Problem argues that America’s currency might not have reached today’s lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. Drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, Kenneth Rogoff animates the remarkable postwar run of the dollar—how it beat out the Japanese yen, the Soviet ruble, and the euro—and the challenges it faces today from crypto and the Chinese yuan, the end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, political instability, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc. Americans cannot take for granted that the Pax Dollar era will last indefinitely, not only because many countries are deeply frustrated with the system, but also because overconfidence and arrogance can lead to unforced errors. Rogoff shows how America’s outsized power and exorbitant privilege can spur financial instability—not just abroad but also at home.``

The hardcover version of this book - published by Yale University Press - is 360 pages, while the audiobook - published by Blackstone - is three minutes short of thirteen hours.