Our Dollar, Your Problem : An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the R

A National Bestseller • Recommended by Financial Times as “What to Read in 2025”

“The central argument of Our Dollar, Your Problem—that the greenback’s pre-eminence was never guaranteed and might plausibly be overturned—could hardly be more timely.”—The Economist

A leading economist explores the global rise of the U.S. dollar and shows why its future stability is far from assured

Our Dollar, Your Problem argues that America’s currency might not have reached today’s lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. Drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, Kenneth Rogoff animates the remarkable postwar run of the dollar—how it beat out the Japanese yen, the Soviet ruble, and the euro—and the challenges it faces today from crypto and the Chinese yuan, the end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, political instability, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc. Americans cannot take for granted that the Pax Dollar era will last indefinitely, not only because many countries are deeply frustrated with the system, but also because overconfidence and arrogance can lead to unforced errors. Rogoff shows how America’s outsized power and exorbitant privilege can spur financial instability—not just abroad but also at home.

MEDIA REVIEWS

“In this brilliant book, Rogoff warns that the primacy of the dollar is at risk.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times, “Best Summer Books of 2025: Economics”“[Rogoff’s] autobiographical element nicely enhances the sometimes technical (but always accessible) monetary story.”—James Grant, Wall Street Journal“One of [Rogoff’s] past books presciently warned about the dangers of a financial crisis. [His new book] Our Dollar, Your Problem worries that we are jeopardizing the dollar’s pivotal role in the global economy. That should matter to all Americans.”—Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post“The central argument of Our Dollar, Your Problem—that the greenback’s pre-eminence was never guaranteed and might plausibly be overturned—could hardly be more timely.”—The Economist“A well-written, often surprisingly lively book.”—Bill Emmott, Financial Times“Kenneth Rogoff’s book shows that change is unstoppable, that we should expect the unexpected.”—Kristalina Georgieva in Wall Street Journal, “Who Read What in 2025”“[Rogoff’s new book is] very well timed. . . . It’s a history of dollar dominance—how we built it, the challenges to it, and a warning, written before the Trump administration, that the rest of the world was already beginning to look for exits from it.”—Ezra Klein, Ezra Klein Show (podcast)