PAUSING recently to change some currency at Paris' Orly Airport, a traveling Texan flourished a $10 bill and exclaimed: "This is real money." For decades the Texan's braggadocio has been largely justified. The dollar is the only big-power currency that has escaped devaluation since World War II. The non-Communist world runs not on a gold standard but a dollar standard. Other countries value their own money in terms of dollars, keep much of their reserves in dollars, and often settle international accounts in dollars. Confidence in U.S. money allows American traders and travelers...
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