TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jeanne,Olivier
TI  - The Dollar and its Discontents
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18143
PY  - 2012
Y2  - June 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18143
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18143.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Olivier Jeanne
Department of Economics
Johns Hopkins University
454 Mergenthaler Hall
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Tel: 410/516-7604
Fax: 410/516-7600
E-Mail: ojeanne@jhu.edu
AB  - Has the US dollar delivered the benefits that the rest of the world is expecting from its holdings of international liquidity? US government debt has been liquid and safe, and it is supplied in sufficient quantity. But it has given a low return to the countries that accumulated the most reserves, especially when those returns are measured in terms of the countries' own consumption. I argue in this paper that the countries that accumulate the most reserves should expect a low return in terms of their own consumption, and that there is little that international monetary reform can do to change that fact.
ER  -