长久以来，关于美元霸权都流传着一种迷思：由于美元是世界货币，所以美国只要不断印钞，就能持续在世界上购买商品和服务，美国在用纸张换商品。

This statement is full of holes, but because of the anti-American needs, there is a large market among the masses.

By the same logic, the Yuan is also a piece of paper, but it can not buy goods around the world, only at home. Look at the surface, also in the paper for goods, is the government in the oppression and exploitation of us?

Of course not. This requires a little common sense about money.

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Before money came along, people traded things, but pretty soon that pattern didn't keep up with productivity: it was impossible to have exactly what you needed every time I needed it, and even if the needs matched, there is a possibility that the value is not equal and the transaction can not be completed.

为了解决这一困境，人们就在交易中慢慢寻找一种被大家普遍接受的商品，先把自己的产品换成这种商品，然后再用它去交换别人的产品，这样交易就顺畅多了。

这种被大家普遍接受的商品有很多，比如很早之前的贝壳、监狱中的香烟和疫情中的可乐。

The so-called currency,

The value of this commodity as currency must be stable, for not only must it be used to price other commodities, but the market must also use it to trade, and if its value fluctuates from high to low, the trade can not go smoothly either.

To maintain a stable value, this commodity must not be produced by people, because its supply and demand can change at any time, the price changes, the natural can not serve as money.

Due to its relative stability in supply and demand, high intrinsic value and ease of cutting, gold has gradually been used as a currency by people around the world.

Gold is naturally not currency, but money is naturally gold

Other precious metals have similar properties. Why does gold stand out? Platinum and palladium are worth more than gold, but too little is being produced to meet the growing demand for commodities, and silver is being produced in such high volumes that its price is volatile and its intrinsic value is low.

For example, just like the position of the Earth in the solar system, it is not at all good to be forward and backward, and so is gold.

故而，马克思说，「

But as productivity and Commodity increased, gold (including silver and copper) fell short of the demand for commodities, and gold became inconvenient to trade for large sums of money. Paper money emerged.

But at that time, the banknote was still gold, and anyone could take the banknote to the money house to exchange it for the same value of gold, which is somewhat similar to the current Hong Kong dollar, which is a bill of exchange that is paid on sight.

Before the collapse of the Bretton Woods system (1971), mankind had been practicing some form of gold standard (or silver standard), and paper money was gold, which was nothing more than a matter of how much gold it contained.

We often say that faith is gold, and this is not a metaphor, but a reality.

All this is to illustrate the economic logic behind a piece of paper being able to buy goods and services,

That's why the dollar says“In God We Trust.” Only when people Trust the state does its paper currency become widely accepted and have purchasing power.

This explains why central banks' top priority is price stability (the ECB has even made price stability its sole priority) , because inflation can shake confidence in the currency, once confidence is lost, its purchasing power disappears.

此时，不管你往这张纸上印多少个零，都没用了。

津巴布韦的百亿大钞

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However, just like with a beautiful woman by your side you it's hard not to want to fall into trouble,

It's up to the next government or generation to keep the currency stable.

The theory that moderate inflation can boost growth is now widely accepted by governments. So moderate inflation is allowed or even encouraged as long as it does not exceed 2 per cent.

It takes only 36 years for a 100-dollar bill to lose 2% of its purchasing power every year, and the actual purchasing power of a 100-dollar bill is only $50.

For example, the average inflation rate in the United States last year was 8.1%, which can be said to say that the US government imposed an 8.1% seigniorage tax on all those who hold dollars, and the remaining $91.9 is the national credit of the United States.

The US dollar is the world's currency, accounting for 40.51% of international trade and 58.81% of foreign exchange reserves. Last year the US levied a seigniorage of 8.1% on this money. This is part of the hegemony of the dollar.

Taking China as an example, foreign exchange reserves in 2022 will be about $3.2 trillion, assuming that 60% of them are dollar assets, then the United States will impose an 8.1% seigniorage tax on $1.92 trillion, and the Federal Reserve has earned China $155.5 billion through currency over-issuance.

铸币税只是美元霸权的一部分，一个很小的部分。

美联储主席鲍威尔

When the Fed cuts interest rates, American multinationals and Wall Street invest cheap money in emerging markets, gradually driving up asset prices in their countries, including stocks, housing and currencies, after years of speculation, the bubble is getting higher and higher, then the Federal Reserve began to raise interest rates, foreign capital gradually withdraw, asset prices burst, several years of development results destroyed in one fell swoop.

The world's central bank is not the World Bank, but the Federal Reserve, and almost all countries' central banks rely on the Fed.

The above is all about the hegemony of the dollar, not some conspiracy theory of buying goods with paper, behind the paper is the national credibility of the United States, the scientific and technological and military strength of the United States.

To be fair, after 2008, when central banks were printing money like crazy, the United States showed restraint. In an age when everyone is flat, the dollar is the least bad currency, and last year the Federal Reserve began an epic round of interest rate rises, far more determined to keep the value of the currency stable than anyone else.