Why is the dollar the “reserve currency” of the world?

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Many explanations I read come down to “almost everyone uses the dollar in international trade”, ” almost all energy is invoiced and paid in dollars” and “almost all international financial flows go through NY one way or the other”, but that just seems a restatement of the fact that the dollar is the reserve currency of the world. My question is: why? How did it end up that way?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

US imperialism after WW2 due to the unique circumstances of basically every other functioning advanced economy being destroyed.

Then through a series of coups, invasions, and assassinations against any country who didn’t go along.

The US weaponized the SWIFT banking system in 2022 which caused a lot of countries who were ambivalent about the whole thing to start finding alternative means of trading.

The petrodollar (oil contracts must be priced in USD) made it so there was always demand for the dollar.

The petrodollar is also dying.

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