Barry Eichengreen on the History of Global Currencies

Barry Eichengreen is a well known author, economist, and economic historian from the University of California, Berkeley. In Barry's first appearance on the show he discusses a career in untangling the world's monetary history, the origins of his new book Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto, the first uses on currencies in the 7 th Century BC, the unexpected start of the dollar, how we landed on the central bank model, the dollar's rise to global reserve currency, which if any currencies as poised to take on the dollar, and much more.

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Recorded on May 27th, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:17 - Barry's Books

00:10:14 - Money Beyond Borders

00:17:17 - Lydia and Greece

00:20:46 - Renaissance of Credits

00:23:36 - Spanish Silver

00:28:26 - The Emergence of Central Banks

00:38:11 - British Empire vs. Roman Empire

00:43:34 - Dollar as One of the Dominant Reserve Currencies

00:56:29 - Outro