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notyourday·

US dollar is backed by :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_t...

and other things like that. Which is why even drug dealers that are hunted by the US trust US dollar.

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Yes, I know that. I lump the US military under "network trust."

What does it mean for a currency to be backed by the military?

Couldn't find a good source quickly, but it should be fairly evident that there is a pretty strong feedback loop between a nation's military and its economy, especially in the all of human history up to the colonial times at least. Maybe the link is more obfuscated today, but the US exerts a huge amount of political power (and therefore economic) with its massive military. And since military relies on the USD for funding, you could probably assume that the USD is going nowhere as long the US military is powerful (with some hand waving), which looks like a good bet.

>And since military relies on the USD for funding, you could probably assume that the USD is going nowhere as long the US military is powerful (with some hand waving), which looks like a good bet.

But that is not income and would only put the US in debt, devaluing the USD.

I think the point he was alluding to is that countries hold a significant chunk of their foreign reserves in USD, which keeps demand for USD high. Other than the obvious trade aspect, one of the major reasons countries do so is because they purchase goods and services from the US military. (e.g. Japan, South Korea).

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