About this episode

The episode discusses the US dollar's global dominance and the challenges it faces from emerging powers like BRICS, featuring insights from economist Fadhel Kaboub.

In this episode we're joined by Fadhel Kaboub for a conversation about the US dollar, its hegemony over the globe, and the emerging challenges to this hegemony. Fadhel Kaboub is a Tunisian-American economist, professor of economics at Denison University, president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity , and author of Global South Perspectives on substack. The conversation opens with a historical overview of how the US dollar became the dominant global currency and the power that this brought with it—exploring the petrodollar, the use of sanctions, and other neocolonial mechanisms upheld by the dollar. We then introduce BRICS and exploring how BRICS challenges US dollar hegemony and the limitations to this challenge. Fadhel then unpacks the ways that US dollar hegemony is and can continue to be challenges through focusing on food sovereignty, energy sovereignty, and industrial/technological sovereignty, which Fadhel unpacks in depth. We then explore some examples of attempts to achieve this kind of sovereignty, beginning with the Alliance of Sahel States and their successes and challenges in seeking sovereignty but looking also at Iran, Cuba, and China. We explore…

People in this episode

Guest: Fadhel Kaboub

Topics covered

• US dollar hegemony
• global currency
• neocolonial mechanisms
• BRICS
• sovereignty
• Global South

Keywords

• US dollar
• hegemony
• BRICS
• neocolonialism
• sovereignty
• Global South
• CFA Franc
• Fadhel Kaboub
• economics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, Denison University

Products: CFA Franc

Places: United States, Tunisia, Iran, Cuba, China, Global South, Sahel States

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