Investing in a De-Americanized World

We were awestruck by the recent amount of ink spilled regarding the potential for the U.S. Dollar to lose its reserve currency status. Commensurate with the well deserved global piling on were comments by Xinhua ( the Chinese State News Agency) in which they stated that “It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world”. When we say we were awestruck, our sense of awe was derived principally from our bewilderment as to why people lavished such safe have status on a currency with such inherent and obvious flaws. While it is true that all fiat currencies are not without their own warts, it was gratifying to at least begin to  hear some dissonance as to the gold plated status of the dollar. The biggest question that investors have to address after this latest boondoggle is: Does this latest impasse represent an inflection point for peoples views on the dollar, and if so, what are the investment implications?   We are obviously in the camp that feels that there will be a slow pivot away from the dollar, and as a result proactive investors need to position themselves appropriately. Instead of considering a de-Americanized world, perhaps we should start thinking about what assets benefit from a de-dollarized world: Buy Stuff Sell Paper.