Venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary is addressing fears that another currency could rise and usurp the US dollar as the undisputed king in international trade and finance.
In a new interview on Stansberry Research, the Shark Tank star says that he’s been hearing calls for the demise of the US dollar his entire life.
According to the venture capitalist, the dollar will likely remain as the world’s reserve currency as long as rich nations and individuals continue to store their wealth in the US stock market.
“I’ve been listening to the death of the US dollar since 1966. Every two years, somebody comes along and says, ‘This is the death of the US dollar.’ You only have to ask yourself one question: if you’re a sovereign wealth fund – I don’t care what country – Middle East country, Eastern, Western Europe, where is the majority of your wealth right now? It’s sitting in the S&P 500 denominated in the US dollar.
Now until that changes, there’s no chance of another currency becoming the default currency of the world. People wanted to make it Bitcoin. That’s interesting, but that’s a speculation. That’s not a currency. So maybe a digitized version of the dollar, although that’s going to be stalled out by privacy concerns, I think. Maybe a private version of that like USDC (USD Coin). But the basic unit of wealth and storage of wealth remains the US dollar.
Ask any high-net-worth individual anywhere on Earth where they want to put all of their money. Nobody tells you the yuan, nobody says the euro, nobody says the British pound. Nobody says Brazilian currency, or Venezuelan currency. It’s all the US dollar. I tell everybody that has a concern with this, ‘Get over it.'”
On the issue of countries such as China and Russia brokering deals to use their native fiat currencies to settle transactions, O’Leary says it’s irrelevant as major economies continue to rely on the dollar to trade goods and services.
“No one’s dumping their US dollar that is a major trading platform, and everybody wants to trade commodities and goods and services in US dollars. I always call this out. Who’s saying this? Find me a sovereign wealth fund…
Russia? Let me invest in there. What a great idea. That’s the whole point. That place is turning itself into an economic wasteland. What else can I say? They’re not going to let them have any US dollars until [Russia] cleans up its act.”
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