New Delhi, Feb. 9 -- As 2026 dawned, two remarkable things happened. The first was news of an explicit call by President Xi Jinping of China for a "strong yuan" to challenge dollar dominance. At the same time, US President Donald Trump dismissed worries about a falling dollar with a "no, it's great" comment.

It is true that Xi's point was made in a closed forum back in 2024, but the Chinese authorities only released it this year. It is also true that Trump is the first US President to talk down the dollar in almost four decades.

There is a complex set of forces at play. Before we unpack that, here is a quick flashback on the various historical cycles of the US dollar. The earliest point traces back to president Richard Richard Nixon's s...