How the U.S. Is Trying to Ensure the Dollar’s Dominance During Economic Turmoil

The summit between President Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing this week is likely to include tense discussions about tariffs, Taiwan, Iran and sanctions. But simmering below the surface is another battle between the United States and China: an intensifying currency war. Concerns about America’s mounting debt load and its aggressive use of sanctions to cut adversaries off from the Western financial system have raised doubts about the safety of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Those fears have led to growing demand for gold and increasing numbers of oil transactions using cryptocurrencies or China’s currency,…