China Ditches the Dollar

Walking the long, windy road toward the demise of the dollar, we spy another mile marker today: China is officially putting their money where their mouth is.

After clamoring for a reserve alternative all year, the Chinese government agreed to a $50 billion currency-diverse deal with the IMF today. Back in June, the deal seemed imminent. This morning, it finally came to fruition.

In their deal with the IMF — the first of its kind for any nation, ever — China buys $50 billion worth of bonds denominated in Special Drawing Rights, which will represent a basket of global monies. (That basket will be a split between the dollar, euro, pound and yen… not exactly the gems of the global currency batch.)

Still, it’s probably a win for China on several fronts: They get to ditch the dollar (sort of) without making a big geopolitical stink. In fact, since their funds will prop up the IMF’s rescue coffer, China gets to play the global good guy for once — while also purchasing some political influence over the IMF.

Russia and Brazil have each promised to buy $10 billion of these bonds, as well.