Episode Details

Gold, the dollar and de-dollarization, with the historian central banks actually read. Barry Eichengreen says the dollar is losing ground, and that gold is not what replaces it.

For years Eichengreen was the calm voice on the dollar. Slow erosion, about half a percentage point of global reserve share every year, no crisis coming. In this interview he tells Kitco News that has changed, and he names the exact day it changed for him.

He also explains where the dollar's losses have actually gone. It isn't China. It isn't the euro. The euro has gained zero of the ground the dollar has lost this century.

Barry Eichengreen is a professor at UC Berkeley and wrote the standard history of the international monetary system. His new book is Money Beyond Borders, from Princeton University Press.

IN THIS INTERVIEW
-Where the dollar's lost reserve share actually went, and why almost nobody has noticed
-Why China's renminbi push has stalled and its share is now falling
-Why central banks are buying gold in record quantities, and why he reads it as structural catch-up rather than a vote against the dollar
-What a country gives up when it repatriates its gold, and the Marine Le Pen letter that started the European wave
-Why the US helping prop up the yen with euros instead of dollars was a signal that foreign dollar reserves are less usable than advertised
-Why America's bet on private stablecoins may be the wrong one, and whether the Fed would ever bail out a stablecoin issuer
-Whether Barry Eichengreen owns any gold himself

Recorded August 21 2026

Follow Barry Eichengreen on X: @B_Eichengreen (https://twitter.com/B_Eichengreen)
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CHAPTERS
00:00 The dollar's real rival is not who you think
 02:07 Where the dollar's losses actually went
 04:00 Why China's renminbi push stalled
 07:12 The euro's fatal flaw
 11:09 Why central banks are really buying gold
 15:14 The new gold buyers nobody expected
 17:40 Record buying, weakest net in four years
 19:44 The hidden cost of bringing gold home
 21:17 How US sanctions are backfiring
 23:02 Why gold can't be money
 26:20 Why Shanghai's gold hub isn't ready
 28:30 So what is gold actually for
 32:10 Does he own any gold
 33:44 The day he changed his mind
 34:53 Answering Ray Dalio on 10 to 15 percent gold
 37:00 What the dollar bulls get wrong
 38:38 The reserve currency history everyone forgets
 46:24 Stablecoins vs CBDCs, is the US betting wrong
 54:09 If dollar confidence breaks
 56:05 "I was wrong"

#gold #dollar #kitconews
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