In order to adapt to the development of global trade, the United States needs to export dollars by maintaining a long-term trade deficit, but the continuous growth of dollar supply will be difficult to maintain a fixed exchange rate relationship between the dollar and gold, affecting the value and reputation of the dollar; In order to maintain the stability of the dollar, the United States needs to maintain a long-term trade surplus. This contradiction between ensuring liquidity supply and monetary stability was discovered by American economist Rob triffin, so it is called "triffin Problem".
During the period of 1960, as the United States changed from a surplus of goods trade to a deficit, the global dollar showed a surplus relative to gold, and the dollar confidence crisis broke out. Countries sell dollars to the United States in exchange for gold, which leads to a large outflow of American gold reserves. The pressure on the US government to exchange gold for dollars is increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure of gold outflow from the United States, make up for the shortage of international reserve assets, and ensure sufficient liquidity in the developing global trade and financial markets, the International Monetary Fund established the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in 1969.
2. The second stage: the post-Bretton Woods system.
However, the birth of SDR can't solve the "triffin problem" of the dollar. 197 1 year, the U.S. government was forced to announce that the dollar was decoupled from gold. 1973, the currencies of major countries were decoupled from the US dollar and turned to a floating exchange rate system. At this point, the Bretton Woods system officially collapsed. Since July 1974, the value of SDR has been determined by the currency basket of 16 largest trading countries at that time. In order to simplify and facilitate pricing, by June 198 1, 1, SDR will be determined by a basket of five currencies, namely US dollar, German mark, French franc, British pound and Japanese yen, and the weight of each currency in the basket will be adjusted once every five currencies.
After the birth of the euro in June, 1999, the euro replaced the position and weight of the German mark and the French franc in SDR. Despite the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system, the SDR has not become the main reserve asset. Before the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, SDR only accounted for 0.5% of the global international reserves, and the US dollar still dominated the international monetary system. This is closely related to the huge economic aggregate of the United States, the US dollar becoming the main settlement currency for international trade and financial transactions, and the long-term inertia of the US dollar as the world's major reserve currency.
3. The third stage: the emergence of a diversified international monetary system. In 2008, the international financial crisis broke out and spread rapidly around the world, once again highlighting the inherent defects and systemic risks of the international monetary system dominated by the US dollar. The international community is increasingly calling for the reform of the monetary system. After the crisis, the rapid rise of emerging economies and their increasing contribution to global economic growth also require more voice in the international monetary system, and the international monetary system has begun to change to diversification.