Comment by gus_massa

This is the worry of globally-available USD stablecoins.

By swapping the volatility from crypto to lower USD volatility, they effectively create a funnel from riskier currencies into dollars.

Which is the same state that previously existed... except now facilitated by the crypto industry's global accessibility/UX and with less international regulation.

Blessing USD stablecoins at the US federal level was a smart move (from the US-perspective) as it creates a much bigger demand for dollars, and if the US didn't do it then China or OPEC would have eventually gotten around to it as an end-run around dollar hegemony.

Winners:

   - Crypto industry (more volume to skim)
   - US Treasury (more demand for debt)

   - Countries with less-stable currencies (lose further control of monetary policy)
   - China / OPEC (miss opportunity to push dedollarization further)

   - Money laundering (once volume grows, KYC and traceability will follow)

Is it really "usually?" I think that people often think of the worse cases (Argentina, etc). Looking at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?most_rec..., the US is at 103, there are 102 countries with worse inflation, and 215 with better. From https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/wld/wor..., the Global Average Inflation rate for 2023 was 5.7%, more than the US but not out of control.

I don't know what the effect is called, but suddenly some unrest in some country or inflation in another calls for creating a whole new money system. It seems unreasonable and I'm a bit suspicious of where it comes from.

sure, but there's something twisted in ripping off e.g. poor africans from the other side of the world...

sure, it couldn't happen without the local warlords, but still...