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The US dollar is the backbone of global trade and held by governments around the world as a safe haven in times of crisis.

It's so powerful that countries like Ecuador and Panama have adopted the dollar as their official currency, while Argentina for many years has tried to "dollarize" its economy.

But what happens if nations - and perhaps as importantly private institutions - start to lose trust in the dollar?

Having once been backed by a system that tied its value to gold, the dollar's dominant status is now backed by the historic success of the American economy alongside open access to its financial markets.

That success gave the dollar what French politician Val茅ry Giscard d'Estaing called America's "exorbitant privilege" to print money without fear of inflation and to build up national debt without consequence.

It has also allowed the US to flex its muscles on the international stage by imposing sanctions on countries and cutting off their access to the dollar. That's lead some countries, most notably China, to call for the dollar to be replaced as the world's reserve currency.

How difficult would it be to untangle the dollar from global trade, can any other nations offer the same conditions which has allowed it to thrive, and what would happen if the dollar's role was replaced by one that operated completely outside the realm of government control?

Presenter: Professor Ben Ansell
Producer: George Dabby
Editor: Damon Rose

Contributors:
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times
Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley
David Shrier, Professor of Practice, AI & Innovation with Imperial College Business School
Stephanie Flanders, Head of Economics and Politics at Bloomberg News
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist

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