When there is somebody, someone or something that is bigger, stronger or more successful than the rest it is natural order of things to try to disestablish that entity. Make it fail and eventually fall. That is the story with the US. The world is watching and quietly grinning at every misstep, every calamity this country suffers. Their attitude is that "you see, you are not as strong as you made us believe".
Some years ago, maybe 15 years ago at one of my trip to Hungary, we flew in to Budapest International Airport. After collecting our luggage and before picking up the rental car we usually stopped at the nearest airport cafe/pastry shop for a little refreshment. Not having any Hungarian currency on us never created any problem. The US dollar was always accepted. Until the last time. At that time we were told that they no longer accepted US$. They Accepted the Euro, Zloty, Rubel and a myriad other currency but no dollar. It was very surprising to us. Fortunately, there was an ATM nearby and I was able to withdraw from my US account in Hungarian Forint.
Today it seems the dollar is losing its charm it used to have. Countries are organizing to start to turn away from the dollar and start a gold backed universal currency. I don't know if this is good or bad, this is above my pay grade. but I am sure that in the future when traveling it will not be as convenient to spend the dollar as it used to be. This is also scary because everybody is rooting for our fall from the financial and economic heights we are occupying.
I remember when years ago I could go to money changing places in Budapest, and as many places I visited that many different rates were offered. And each one was pretty good but some were even better. Now, nobody wants to touch the mighty dollar.
What this world is coming to?
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