@jolyonAxel Merk's framing is the part worth sitting with: the dollar can shed its global dominance without any successor stepping in. Brandon J. Weichert interviewed the Merk Investments founder and CIO for the weichert brief, and the talk opened on Christine Lagarde's surprise exit from the ECB before widening into Europe's economic strains. On the currency question, Merk's answer is that nothing is lined up to take the dollar's place, and nothing needs to be. What he sees instead is a financial system breaking into pieces, with countries funding themselves more and leaning less on Washington. In his telling, two things speed that along: the tariffs the U.S. has imposed and the dollar being used as a lever. France's fiscal difficulties came up, as did what Germany's rearmament is costing, plus whether a further escalation with Iran could lift oil prices enough to tip things into recession. Merk isn't calling for an overnight collapse, and he's actually more hopeful about America's long-run position than China's. His expectation is gradual: the assumption that U.S. finance calls every shot fades over time, and the dollar stays on top while carrying far less weight.

@jolyonAxel Merk's framing is the part worth sitting with: the dollar can shed its global dominance without any successor stepping in. Brandon J. Weichert interviewed the Merk Investments founder and CIO for the weichert brief, and the talk opened on Christine Lagarde's surprise exit from the ECB before widening into Europe's economic strains. On the currency question, Merk's answer is that nothing is lined up to take the dollar's place, and nothing needs to be. What he sees instead is a financial system breaking into pieces, with countries funding themselves more and leaning less on Washington. In his telling, two things speed that along: the tariffs the U.S. has imposed and the dollar being used as a lever. France's fiscal difficulties came up, as did what Germany's rearmament is costing, plus whether a further escalation with Iran could lift oil prices enough to tip things into recession. Merk isn't calling for an overnight collapse, and he's actually more hopeful about America's long-run position than China's. His expectation is gradual: the assumption that U.S. finance calls every shot fades over time, and the dollar stays on top while carrying far less weight.