What Happens When the Dollar Falls

A debt-fueled collapse is coming—here's how to safeguard your wealth before it hits.

DAILY POSTCARD  | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2025 Dear International Living reader, Most Americans still believe the dollar is untouchable. That it will always be the world's safe haven. That nothing could ever shake its throne. They're wrong. And few people are better qualified to say so than Jeff D. Opdyke—former Wall Street Journal writer and International Living's Personal Finance Expert.  After decades studying global markets from the inside, Jeff sees what most refuse to: the cracks spreading through America's financial foundation, and what happens when the world finally decides it doesn't need the US dollar anymore. Below, he explains why the time to act isn't "someday"—it's now… P.S. There's a powerful "Freedom Plan" that you can put into effect in just five hours to secure options for you and your family… no matter what's to come. Learn more here. A Dollar Crisis is Coming… You Need to Protect Yourself By Jeff D. Opdyke The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. It's paved with trillions of dollars of debt, held in place by the BS that politicians spew every time they open their mouths. This is a bipartisan issue, of course. Democrats and Republicans have been equally abusive of Uncle Sam's wallet. Though one might hope that politicians would govern with a sense of financial wisdom, turns out they spend with the sense of a drunken monkey running buck wild at a banana plantation. At $38 trillion, America's debts are now so extreme that foreign investors have begun ghosting the Treasury Department by skipping the department's regular auction of Treasury debt… which in turn has helped crush demand for the US dollar. The greenback's 12% fall against other major currencies through the first half of the year was its worst decline in more than half a century. That's the rest of the world sending a message to America: We don't trust your fiscal situation; we don't trust your politics; we don't trust your ability to keep the dollar from plunging into a debt-fueled crisis. The Great Central Bank Gold Rush—and Other Reasons to be Worried One critical proof point: Central banks globally have been selling dollars and buying gold. Back in the late 2010s, the dollar represented 60% of central bank assets. Today it's down to about 48%. Gold holdings that once amounted to just 12% are up to 20% now, the second largest asset on central bank balance sheets. Central bankers are not investors. They're not plotting which assets are likely to earn them the best return over some period of time. They're bureaucrats. Bean counters charged with keeping stable the economies and currencies they oversee. To them, safety is paramount. And their actions—selling dollars to pack on more gold—speak volumes about the dollar worries they harbor. The question they're implicitly asking: Will a dollar crisis fuel the next great global meltdown? If so, then best to start lining up those rows of golden ducks now. I harbor those exact worries, too—a fact I've been writing about for 15 years. Early on, telling me I was wrong was a contact-sport for some of my first readers. Today, far fewer people challenge my concerns. They've seen America's financial, social, and political deterioration weaken the country, as I predicted. They've seen gold rise dramatically… as I predicted. I've been preparing for this for years: methodically buying physical gold, packing my brokerage and retirement accounts with particular gold-mining stocks and specific ETFs. I've bought six figures worth of rare and bullion gold coins over the years, often popping into local coin shops when I'm traveling just to grab an old gold coin that catches my fancy. The largest investment in my largest mid-six-figure IRA is in Swiss francs. I've gone heavy into specific cryptocurrencies that are going to survive the reckoning and then thrive in the new world of digital money that will grow out of the crisis to come. And I've taken money out of the US dollar and put it into a dull, boring bank account, in Ireland, where my cash is denominated in euros and where it sits in a highly regulated banking system nowhere near as Wild West as the US system has proven to be over the last 20 years or so. In short, since 2010, I've methodically been structuring my financial life for a world in which the dollar is losing its power. That's not a dig against the dollar. It's commentary on the inevitable, based on facts I don't control: US debt is unsustainable, as per Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who last year told 60 Minutes that America is on an "unsustainable fiscal path," meaning that "the debt is growing faster than the economy." Numerous noted economists as well as former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke have been commenting on America's extreme debt-repayment costs, which now exceed $1 trillion annually, more than 15% of the federal budget, the largest level in America's peacetime history. The Treasury Department, as noted by Reuters and many others, has seen tepid demand among foreign investors bidding in regular auctions of Treasury debt in 2025, a sign that investors are scaling back exposure to US debt, US financial markets, and the US political environment. Numerous countries, including Brazil, a significant US trading partner, have begun trading directly with China in yuan rather than dollars, a trend that reduces global demand for dollars, which weakens the dollar even more and adds to inflation pressures on American families. The Trump administration has openly stated that it wants (and will seek) a weaker dollar in an effort to boost American manufacturing. There's only one way to react to all those plot points: Prepare your finances for a world in which the greenback is no longer King Dollar. Because the biggest risk of all is that a dollar in decline leads to a moment in which the rest of the world decides that they no longer need the dollar as the planet's reserve currency. And if that day comes to pass… personal financial life in America shifts in a radical and unexpected direction. Editor's Note: If you want to build a real Plan B—one that protects your money, secures your freedom, and opens the door to a better life abroad—then you need to watch this special presentation on our 5-Hour Freedom Plan. I will walk you through the fastest, easiest, and most secure ways to open a foreign bank account, get second residency, and even qualify for a second passport… all without leaving home. Click here to learn more about the 5-Hour Freedom Plan and start building your international backup plan today. Recommended Resource: A 5-Hour Project You'll Wish You'd Done Sooner Most people don't think about this until it's too late. But with just a few hours this weekend, you can begin to set up something simple that could save you from a lot of stress down the road. No drastic changes. No big expenses. Just a smart, proven plan that's been used quietly for years by people who want more control over their lives. Once you see it, you'll wonder why no one told you sooner. Go here now to learn more.   Inbox too crowded? Don't worry—if you can't keep up with our International Living Postcards every day, click here to switch to the Weekly Best of IL Postcards instead. If you no longer wish to receive IL Postcards, click here to unsubscribe. The mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so please do not reply. Your feedback is very important to us, so if you would like to contact us with a question or comment, please click here. © 2025 International Living Publishing Ltd. 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