Who allowed this to happen?
China disclosed the other day that its foreign exchange reserves had increased to about $2.4 trillion in 2009, up $453 billion for the year. These stupendous figures — and the likelihood that the country’s reserves will rise by a comparable amount this year — have become a financial, economic and geopolitical reality of surpassing significance. The significance is not, as many imagine, that China might suddenly “dump” the dollar and dethrone it as the world’s major international currency, undermining American economic power and prestige. Two-thirds or more of China’s reserves are estimated to be held in dollars. As an economic strategy, dumping the dollar would boomerang. It would amount to a declaration of economic war in which everyone — Chinese, Americans and many others — would lose.
The massive disgorging of dollars could trigger another global economic collapse