Paul Blustein has written about economic issues for over forty years, first as a reporter at leading news organizations and later as the author of several critically acclaimed books. His latest book, published by Yale University Press in March 2025, is King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World’s Dominant Currency. Prophecies that the dollar will lose its status as the world’s dominant currency have echoed for decades—and are increasing in volume. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts claim that Bitcoin or other blockchain-based monetary units will replace the dollar. Foreign policy hawks warn that China’s renminbi poses a lethal threat to the greenback. And sound money zealots predict that mounting US debt and inflation will surely erode the dollar’s value to the point of irrelevancy.
Contra the doomsayers, Paul Blustein shows that the dollar’s standing atop the world’s currency pyramid is impregnable, barring catastrophic policy missteps by the US government. Recounting how the United States has wielded the dollar to impose devastating sanctions against adversaries, Blustein explains that although targets such as Russia have found ways to limit the damage, Washington’s financial weaponry will retain potency long into the future. His message, however, is that America must not be complacent about the dollar; the great power that its supremacy confers comes with commensurate responsibility.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, Paul spent much of his career reporting for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His work has won several prizes, including business journalism’s most prestigious, the Gerald Loeb Award. In recent years, he has published articles in Fortune, Slate, Politico, Foreign Policy, Bloomberg View, and other media outlets. His reporting and research have taken him to more than 50 countries on six continents.
Co-sponsored with the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance and European Studies.