Money Beyond Borders with Barry Eichengreen

About this episode

Barry Eichengreen discusses the historical context and future prospects of the dollar and other international currencies.

Doubts about the international dominance of the dollar are only growing amid worries about tariffs, political dysfunction, and fraying international alliances. Will the dollar continue to reign supreme? In Money Beyond Borders, the leading authority on international currencies, Barry Eichengreen, puts the dollar's prospects in deep historical perspective by chronicling the entire history of cross-border currencies, from the invention of coins in the seventh century BCE to the cryptocurrencies of today and the central bank digital currencies of tomorrow. Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto (Princeton University Press, 2026) recounts how Greek and Roman coins became the first true international currencies. It tells how the Florentine gold florin became the "greenback of the Renaissance," and how it was succeeded by Spanish silver and a Dutch fiat currency. The book explains why the British pound dominated the international economy in the nineteenth century, why the dollar rose to the top during World War II, and why the dollar has survived predictions of the imminent loss of its preeminence since the 1970s. The long history of international currencies…

People in this episode

Guest: Barry Eichengreen

Topics covered

• international currencies
• dollar dominance
• historical perspective
• cryptocurrencies
• economic history
• global finance

Keywords

• dollar
• currencies
• economic history
• cryptocurrency
• global finance
• international dominance
• historical perspective

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton University Press

Books & works: Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto

Places: United States, Florence, Greece, Rome, Spain, Netherlands

More episodes of Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

• Lawrence Douglas, "The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice" (Princeton UP, 2026) · June 3, 2026 · 52 min
• Steven Nadler, "Spinoza, Atheist" (Princeton UP, 2026) · June 2, 2026 · 41 min
• Annette Gordon-Reed ed., "Jefferson on Race: A Reader" (Princeton UP, 2026) · May 30, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Hugo Drochon, "Elites and Democracy" (Princeton UP, 2026) · May 20, 2026 · 1h 4m
• Kira Ganga Kieffer, "Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America" (Princeton UP, 2026) · May 13, 2026 · 43 min
• Mark Peterson, "The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History" (Princeton UP, 2026) · May 9, 2026 · 1h 6m