Friday, March 13
During the Biden administration, the most effective tool Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had to sustain his invasion of Ukraine proved to be his warnings of nuclear escalation, a tactic that prompted Kyiv’s allies to drip-feed its supply of arms for fear of provoking one. That threat lost its power through overuse, but in the Trump era the Kremlin has been handed a still more potent weapon: the peace process.More than a year into negotiations that President Donald Trump said would take him 24 hours to resolve, talks in Dubai last week produced nothing beyond a prisoner swap — invaluable to the troops and families involved, but irrelevant to a settlement. Steve Witkoff, the real-estate developer chosen to drive this US-led initiative, gave a short readout from the three-way meeting
The highest US tariffs in almost a century have had a muted impact so far on global growth, but Asian policymakers aren’t lulled by the calm. They’re taking their cues from jumpy markets and plotting what appears to be a mutiny against King Dollar. In the 1960s, the French could only rail against America’s exorbitant privilege. In the 2020s, China — aided by other countries — may be in a position to challenge it. Those searching for evidence of that uprising in payment flows are looking in the wrong place. For years to come, de-dollarization will remain hidden in additions and alterations to financial plumbing. The cumulative effects will take time to show.With little fanfare, China’s e-CNY, the official digital currency, has gone from being interest-free cash to a yield-bearin
