Dollar Weakness Enters Popular Culture

“… it’s an ominous sign when dollar weakness becomes ingrained enough in the popular mind for the currency to be spurned by runway models.”

– “Gisele Dumps Ben” (subscription required), The Wall Street Journal, Editorial, Tuesday November 6

Last Monday, Bloomberg reported that supermodel Giselle Bundchen was asking to be paid in euros rather than dollars.

In his most recent music video “Blue Magic”, rapper Jay-Z flashes euro when rapping about spending his “bread” (see 1:21 in the video).

It’s funny but it’s serious too.  If people around the world stop treating the dollar as money and instead start substituting the euro or another currency, that will lead an acceleration in the decline of the dollar and a loss of a number of benefits Americans have enjoyed from having their currency be the world’s reserve currency.

For an excellent, and more serious, short treatment see Sebastian Mallaby’s Monday piece in The Washington Post, “The Dollar In Danger”.