For me, it boils down to this: Every era has a hegemon, and in our time it is the US. Every hegemon throughout history has maintained that position by forcing other nations to use its currency for trade. (as well as helping themselves to those nations' resources.) To enforce this, it must maintain the largest military. To deploy the largest military, its currency must remain in universal use. (Do you see the circularity in this) What could go wrong? China has risen to challenge the US in gdp and military, and is rolling out its digital Yuan cross-payments system to eventually completely trade outside the USD system. Russia has developed massive energy and other trade with Europe using the Euro and with China with the Yuan, bypassing the USD system. The US 'bought time' by doing the Petrodollar deal with the Saudis, but that deal has now broken down. The US tax take is now about half of the Govt budget, so the difference has to come from US Govt borrowing. Foreign countries no longer recycle dollars into US Govt bonds, so the US Fed has to print trillions to meet Govt spending obligations. this never-ending expansion of the currency supply will fuel inflation and eventually destroy what's left of USD purchasing power. The US empire inevitably ends with a currency crisis and military decline.
