Does the US really make the dollar? Has it ever?
From The Rhodes Center Podcast with Mark Blyth by Rhodes Center
June 5, 2026 · 38 min
About this episode
Mark Blyth interviews Brendan Greeley about the global ties of the US dollar and insights from Greeley's book on its history.
On this episode, Mark talks with Brendan Greeley, a journalist and former U.S. economics editor at the Financial Times, about his new book “The Almighty Dollar, 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money.” In it, Greeley makes the case that the American dollar is not (and never has been) quite as…American … as one might assume; from its very beginning, it’s had deep global ties, and no single government has ever been in full control of it. Mark and Brendan discuss what this more nuanced understanding of the dollar reveals about how the U.S. economy operates, and how it might help us think about the future of the “almighty dollar.” Learn more about and purchase “The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money” Transcript coming soon to our website
People in this episode
Host: Mark Blyth
Guest: Brendan Greeley
Topics covered
- US dollar
- economics
- global finance
- Brendan Greeley
- American economy
- history of money
Keywords
- US dollar
- economics
- Brendan Greeley
- Financial Times
- almighty dollar
- global finance
- history of money
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Financial Times
Books & works: The Almighty Dollar, 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money
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