"The reserve currency role seems to add prestige to an area and some people in Europe have talked about the desirability of the euro becoming an international reserve currency"
About this Quote
Prestige is doing a lot of quiet work here, and Solomon knows it. He’s not just describing the technical advantages of a reserve currency (liquidity, cheaper borrowing, deeper capital markets). He’s pointing at the psychological and political payoff: the intoxicating sense that your “area” has graduated from being a participant in the global order to one of its authors.
The phrasing “seems to add prestige” is a tell. It’s cautious, almost clinical, as if he’s distancing himself from the seduction he’s diagnosing. Reserve-currency status is partly an economic function and partly a collective belief system: markets treat your assets as default safe, and your policymakers enjoy an expanded margin for error. That’s real power, but it also invites vanity projects and strategic overreach. Solomon’s educator’s voice gives the line its edge; he frames the desire as something people “have talked about,” not an inevitable destiny, implying a debate fueled as much by identity as by spreadsheets.
Context matters: this is the post-euro moment when Europe was testing whether monetary union could translate into geopolitical heft. The euro wasn’t only a payment instrument; it was a bid for adulthood after decades under the shadow of the dollar. Solomon’s subtext is that Europe’s reserve-currency ambition is as much about internal cohesion and external recognition as it is about yield curves.
The quote works because it exposes a taboo truth in polite policy circles: reserve currencies are status symbols with balance sheets.
The phrasing “seems to add prestige” is a tell. It’s cautious, almost clinical, as if he’s distancing himself from the seduction he’s diagnosing. Reserve-currency status is partly an economic function and partly a collective belief system: markets treat your assets as default safe, and your policymakers enjoy an expanded margin for error. That’s real power, but it also invites vanity projects and strategic overreach. Solomon’s educator’s voice gives the line its edge; he frames the desire as something people “have talked about,” not an inevitable destiny, implying a debate fueled as much by identity as by spreadsheets.
Context matters: this is the post-euro moment when Europe was testing whether monetary union could translate into geopolitical heft. The euro wasn’t only a payment instrument; it was a bid for adulthood after decades under the shadow of the dollar. Solomon’s subtext is that Europe’s reserve-currency ambition is as much about internal cohesion and external recognition as it is about yield curves.
The quote works because it exposes a taboo truth in polite policy circles: reserve currencies are status symbols with balance sheets.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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