2030_ The Real Story of What Happens to America - Albert Brooks [44]
A decade and a half earlier, in 2016, the dollar’s run as the world’s reserve currency ended. It was not replaced by another, but instead a complicated shared currency went into effect in which the banks of the world, which previously held their reserves in dollars and euros, now used the renminbi, the rupee, the dollar, the euro, the pound, and a rising star, the Korean won. It was not only a complicated mess, allowing shrewd traders to profit from trading one currency against another, but Bernstein always felt that it weakened the United States. As long as the dollar was being diluted so severely, why not get rid of it in favor of a world currency?
Bernstein had addressed the world currency issue in his campaign, but it seemed to scare people. The official demise of the dollar, too many people felt, would end the United States as a power once and for all, even though that demise had already taken place. But the very idea of the word “dollar” leaving the language was too much for most people to handle. And economists could not be certain that a world currency would make Americans richer, though the President strongly disagreed. Bernstein felt that if all of these currency conversions were eliminated, trillions of dollars could be saved. He kept telling anyone who would listen that if there were a single currency, the trading in money would be stopped forever. The President hated that a few people around the world could decide each day what the dollar was worth. Why should money be traded as if it were coffee or sugar? But once the President got into office, a cascade of issues fell on his head, as they do on every president’s, and the world currency campaign took a backseat. He still wanted to revive it.
As he sat down, his chief of staff opened the meeting. John Van Dyke was smart. He knew a little about everything and in many areas he was an expert. He hated the debt that America’s engine ran on, but like everyone else, he had no idea how to solve it. The debt affected every single person now, not just the rich or the old or the young or the poor, but to solve this problem, everyone’s life would have to change so radically that no one wanted to deal with it. And the worst thing about the debt was that it was now accepted as part of American life. When it finally surpassed the gross national product, people running for office stopped saying, “It’s time to wipe out the debt.” Now all they said was, “Elect me, and I will keep it from going higher.”
One candidate in the 2016 election actually came up with a World Forgiveness Day, a day when the entire world would forgive all debt and everyone on the planet could start from scratch. It got some traction; people loved the idea, and it made for rousing speeches. Until, that is, someone actually analyzed it and came to the conclusion that the rich people would lose the most as banks would go out of business, since banks made all of their money on debt. Ideas that put banks out of business generally went nowhere and this one was no exception.
The President turned to his secretary of the Treasury, Morton Spiller, and asked him to begin. The President thought Spiller was smart, but the more they worked together, the less he liked him. He was impressed by Spiller’s career in finance as head of GoldmanSachsofAmerica (GSofA) for six years, during which time the company had made more money than any other financial institution in the world.
Spiller had never worked in government but could not refuse when the president of the United States asked him to take the job. He had one request: He wanted to work four months of the year from his farm on Nantucket. With communications being so sophisticated, the President agreed, but began to resent it when everyone