China's Rise and the New Age of Gold: How Investors Can Profit from a Changing World

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The Eastern Oil Benchmark

WHEN LATER THIS century historians relate, as they will, how the dollar lost its role as the world’s primary reserve currency, one date they are sure to note is March 26, 2018. This was the day China launched an Eastern oil benchmark denominated in yuan. A long-planned and often-delayed move, it wasn’t intended to shrink the dollar’s role or elevate the yuan or gold overnight, and it didn’t. But it was a significant step forward toward those goals.

Remember, ever since Nixon, oil priced in dollars has been a linchpin of the dollar’s continued reign as the world’s chief reserve currency. Oil is the world’s most traded commodity, essential to economies around the world. As long as countries need dollars to obtain ...