Will the US Dollar Remain the Sole Key Global Reserve Currency in the Future? The Implications of Rising Debt, Unorthodox Monetary Policy and Emergence of Alternative Currencies.

This thesis studies two key risks that have the potential to dethrone the US dollar’s position as the dominant global reserve currency. Specifically, it contends the first risk stems from a future loss of confidence in the US dollar’s value from excessive indebtedness and unintended consequences from the implementation of unorthodox monetary policies. The second risk could come from other major states circumnavigating the US dollar by utilising and facilitating the rise of other reserve currencies. To examine these two risks, an interpretive methodological approach is utilised to study a wide variety of relevant qualitative and quantitative data. Based upon this, the thesis seeks to answer the following question: will the US dollar remain the sole key global reserve currency in the future? It finds that the US dollar is in danger of being dethroned and is unlikely to retain its position as the sole key global reserve currency. Yet, if managed properly by elected leaders, excessive indebtedness will not significantly affect the US dollar’s status. However, the rise of other currencies, most notably the Chinese Yuan and the inherent potential of new gold backed and cyber backed currencies, is a risk that cannot be completely mitigated. Therefore, in the future, the US dollar will likely lose its monopoly as the key reserve currency and have to be content with the US dollar being the first or second most important currency in a duplicity/multiplicity key reserve currency world