A new Cold War is underway. While the first Cold War was dominated by the threat of nuclear conflict, the new front line is economic and financial, but still dominated by technology. Who controls its future will help decide the outcome of the geopolitical struggle between China and the US.

Since the end of the Second World War, the US dollar has been the global reserve currency, which has ensured American dominance of the world economy. But no longer. More than a hundred countries are developing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), digital equivalents to cash that will utterly transform how we do business at home and abroad. China was the first country to recognise the potential of this new money. The West's media focused on the new currency's role in China's surveillance state, creating widespread concern about all CBDCs. But they have largely overlooked a more important aspect of its existence: as a tool through which to 'de-dollarise' the developing world at the speed of light. The presentation will discuss how CBDCs are going to impact all of our futures in ways that most of us have failed to even consider. If the West is to compete, it needs to act fast to develop its own global digital currencies that reflect the values of liberal democracies.

Meet our speaker and chair

Brunello Rosa (@brunello_rosa) is a financial economist and geopolitical strategist who advises market participants, policy-makers and institutions. He is the CEO and head of research of Rosa & Roubini Associates, a visiting professor at City St George’s, University of London, and Senior Executive Fellow at the School of Management of Bocconi University in Italy. He is the coordinator of the executive education course in Global Macroeconomic Challenges at LSE, where he has taught in various capacities for the last twenty years. Having previously worked at the Bank of England, he is an active member of the Chief Economists Advisory Board of the European Investment Bank. More recently he has advised several institutions, including the UK Parliament, on the geopolitical aspects of CBDCs.

Ricardo Reis (@R2Rsquared) is the A.W. Phillips Professor of Economics at LSE. Recent honors include the 2022 Carl Menger prize, the 2021 Yrjo Jahnsson medal, election for the Econometric Society in 2019, the 2017 BdF/TSE junior prize, and the 2016 Bernacer prize. He is an academic consultant at the Bank of England, the Riksbank, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, directs the Centre for Macroeconomics, and serves on the council or as an advisor of multiple organizations. He has published widely on macroeconomics, including both monetary and fiscal policy, inflation and business cycles. Professor Reis received his PhD from Harvard University, and was previously on the faculties at Columbia University and Princeton University.

More about this event

The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) is a research centre that brings together a group of world class experts to carry out pioneering research on the study of nations’ prosperity, and the crises that afflict them, helping to design policies that will create a healthier and more resilient economy.

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