That's the question millions of NYT readers will be asking after seeing this article. The article raises concerns about the declining importance of the dollar as an international currency and in particular the possibility that commodities like oil will no longer be traded in dollars.
While the fear that oil exporters will no longer demand dollars appears repeatedly in the media, it actually will have very little impact on the demand for the dollar. The amount of oil traded internationally is currently around $4 billion a day. By comparison, China holds more than $1 trillion of dollar reserves. This means that if China reduced its holdings of dollar reserves by 0.5 percent it would have more impact on the demand for dollars than if all the oil exporters immediately abandoned the dollar as the instrument of payment for their oil.
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