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The dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency also gives American policymakers options that were not available in 1997 to South Korean officials, whose most immediate problem was a collapse in the value of their currency, the won.
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Basically, South Korea had to make the tough decisions because they couldn’t print $$$ on their own. US can keep printing $$$ to buy oil/pay-interest-on-debt/etc but South Korea didn’t have the option.
Ultimately one key advantage US has enjoyed (printing $$$ as world currency) for decades might be the destructive drug that will take everything away that US has enjoyed for a long time.
