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Termites are slowly feasting away at the foundations of the dollar’s dominanceChomp chomp chomp© APSteven Kamin was previously head of international finance at the Federal Reserve and is now senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Mark Sobel was previously head of international finance at the US Treasury and is now US chair of OMFIF.The dollar’s dominance was built on the foundation of America’s many strengths. But like termites eating away at a house’s woodwork, Trump’s dysfunctional policies are eating away at its support and rendering the US currency acutely vulnerable to future shocks. This remarkable newfound weakness was on full display this week, after President Donald Trump reality-divorced insistence that “the dollar is doing great”. Traders responded by sending it even lower:This is not to suggest that the House of Dollar will tumble down anytime soon. Its value is related but separate to its pre-eminent importance in the global economy. And at present, there are no good alternatives to the dollar for a global currency, not even the euro or renminbi. The US still has the world’s deepest and most liquid open capital markets. The major US banks remain healthy and able to finance far-flung networks of global trade and finance.But whereas a few years back, one would have been hard-pressed to foresee a world without dollar dominance, now one can readily imagine such a disorder emerging in the coming decades.Let’s back up to April 2, which Trump labelled “Liberation Day”. As global investors recoiled in horror at his announcement of sweeping, senseless tariffs on large swaths of the globe — some of them uninhabited — stock markets collapsed and financial volatility soared. Ordinarily, that would have prompted the dollar to rise, since it has long stood as a safe haven in times of crisis and uncertainty. But instead, the dollar plunged, convincing many observers that markets were now turning their back on the world’s pre-eminent safe asset. Indeed, you can see in the chart below, after Liberation Day the dollar plunged below the prediction of a simple currency valuation model, which explains movements on the basis of interest rate differentials and the VIX measure of stock market volatility.Moreover, the sensitivity of the dollar to increases in the VIX switched from positive — as expected in a safe-haven currency — to negative right after Liberation Day. This suggested that the dollar had morphed from a safe-haven currency, as befits the world’s most important asset, to an emerging-market style risky currency. Sure, markets have each time calmed down and the dollar’s safe-haven behaviour has reasserted itself as investors became more inured to Trump’s chaotic policies. However, Trump’s termites continued to feast on the foundations of dollar dominance:— The status of the US as a trusted ally and partner has eroded further, weakening a key pillar of the dollar’s global stature. A constant stream of tariff tantrums, threats to invade Greenland and Panama, support for rightwing parties in Europe, mollycoddling Putin over Ukraine, questioning NATO’s existence, numerous insults to Canada and countless other initiatives have forced others to doubt the reliability, trustworthiness and honour of the US. — The soundness of US macro policy has come into question. Of course, fiscal policy is a long-standing mess which the US political class lacks the guts to confront. But last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill will only worsen US debt dynamics and ensure a future explosion of its debt/GDP ratio. Meanwhile, Trump’s assaults on Fed independence reinforce the possibility that mounting budget deficits will be financed by rising inflation. — Mounting budget deficits and debt threaten the future solvency of the federal government and the safety and liquidity of US Treasuries. Should investors come to question the creditworthiness of the US government, or the Fed’s commitment to price stability, it is game over for dollar dominance.— Institutions are being degraded. Beyond the constant attacks and invective against the Federal Reserve, the Trump administration has assaulted the civil service through its ill-conceived “Doge” and gratuitous firing of public servants. The Supreme Court is increasingly unpopular and Congress is viewed as even less effective than in the past. — The rule of law is being weakened. Global investors may not be concerned by ICE’s behaviour or the weaponisation of the Department of Justice by the While House. But the administration’s intrusions into private business — as well as the taxes on capital flows that nearly made it into the OBBB — should lead them to hesitate before committing long-term investments into the US. With Trump’s termites having steadily worked away over the past year at the underpinnings of dollar dominance, it came as no surprise that his resurgent threats against Greenland, while culminating in his chickening out at Davos, triggered such turbulence in global FX markets.As you can see in the first chart above, after having returned to our model by late last year, the dollar again fell as the Greenland debacle unfolded. The second chart shows that the dollar’s negative correlation to VIX resumed, once again trading like an emerging market currency.While the dollar will probably regain its safe-haven status as markets calm down, the termites will continue to undermine the edifice of our economy. And the eventual consequences of their work will extend well beyond the loss of dollar dominance, to less stable, dynamic, and prosperous American and global economies. The dollar survived a massive jolt early in Trump’s term, and it will probably survive its most recent jolt. But with each succeeding shock, the House of Dollar may wobble a bit more. The question is now: how fast can the termites feast?