"The gold standard, which will never, ever, ever return by the way, was responsible for the Great Depression, so lucky we don't have it today or we'd have another one."
No disagreement here. We are not going back to the gold standard with gold/USD ratio fixed.
"The USA still makes stuff ...." yes, but not enough, that's why they run an annual trade deficit.
"The USA still ...is the strongest military power, and the strongest military power has the reserve currency, the US dollar." Indeed, only that their relative advantage/strength has been reduced, a trend since 911 that is still evolving.
The reserve currency status of the USD is actually not so good. It requires the USA to forever run a trade deficit so other countries can have USD savings, yet the very trade deficits weakens the USD fundamentally, a true dilemma. And it is for this reason that I have the same conclusion you have about the RMB: the RMB will NOT be the new reserve currency. The new global reserve currency role is reserved for the ultimate king of currencies: GOLD.
