>>19957410
>hy wouldn't the other countries 'call in' their debt and force the US to pay using PMs? If the US now has a NewBuck tied directly to PMs, then China could say, 'Okay, you own us 3 trillion of your dollars, but since they're directly redeemable for Silver/Gold, then we'll just take the gold, thank you very much'
That's exactly what happened in the 60s and the very reason why the US went out of the gold backed dollar in the first place. It's impossible to export inflation for free, as we do now, with a limited asset. But back then US had two things : total control over the maritimes roads and trust from other countries. Neither are true now, i mean the US are still a major thalassocracy, but maritimes roads are not the only way to move oil nowaday, the pipelines web is now the main way to transport oil, and most don't cross US dominions (like pipelines connecting Russia and China for example). In this scenario, the 'dollar tax' can be override, and the USD lose it's oil-backing status.
Hopefully for the USD, it remain a reserve currency for the moment, which is it's main strenght. Most ppl ignore it, but every single country around the world hold USD, simply to be able to continue international trades in case their national currency become worthless and their commercial partners refuse to be payed in said currency.
Take the very recent example of Liban. They defaulted on their debts, and their money immediately became totally worthless. It didn't take hours for their partners to want to renegociate their trade agreement. Of course, no one want to be payed in worthless arab clown money. But Liban's population very survival depends on those trades : it's oil, food, industrial products, etc..
So the Liban central bank had to use their USD reserve to pay for said trades to continue instead of the national currency. Then when they ran out of USD, they had to call the US, to get more USD, and in exchange the US took every ounce of gold they had, and also lands..