John Kerry: Dollar’s Precarious Reserve Status “Bubbling Out There;” US Dollar Could Lose Reserve Status If US Sanctioned Allies Over A Failed Iran Nuclear Deal

TND Exclusive:  Eric Dubin

Speaking with Reuters last Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry was unusually frank.  Asked about what might happen if Congress failed to support the Iran nuclear agreement and what the US might do if allied nations also failed to support the agreement, Kerry was asked about the possibility of sanctioning allied nations.  What followed was surprising.  Normally, one might think of economic pain and declining export markets as a likely top concern.  Instead, Kerry is apparently cognizant of the precarious state of  US dollar reserve status, so much so that it was the first thing he mentioned.

SEC. JOHN KERRY: Are you kidding me? The United States is going to start sanctioning our allies and their banks and their businesses [who do business with Iran] because we walked away from a deal?

And we’re going to force them to do what we want them to do — Even though they agreed to the deal we came to?

Are you kidding?

That is a recipe, quickly, my friends… for them to walk away from Ukraine.

Where they are already very dicey and ready to say they have done their bit.

They’re ready to say, “we’re the ones paying the price for your sanctions.”

… It was Obama who went out and actually put together a sanctions regime that had an impact — I went to China. We persuaded China not to buy more oil.

We persuaded India and other countries to step back.

Could you imagine trying to sanction them after persuading them to put in place sanctions to bring Iran to the negotiating table, and when they have not only come to the table but they made a deal, we turn around an nix the deal .. and then turn around and impose the sanctions anyway.

That is a recipe, my friends, business people here, for the American dollar to cease to be the reserve currency of the world, which is already bubbling out there.
Video source: Real Clear Politics

Reportage on this story has been a bit sloppy.  Some headlines have suggested that reserve status would come under direct pressure on a Congressional vote rejecting the nuclear agreement.  As you can see from the exact quote, that’s not what Kerry meant.  But the key takeaway here is that Kerry just acknowledged what the mainstream business press has mostly tried to obfuscate:  continued dollar reserve status is indeed in a precarious state, and there’s plenty awareness of this fact “bubbling out there.”