On February 14, 1945, US [[President Franklin Roosevelt]] met with and reached an agreement with [[Ibn Saud]], King of [[Saudi Arabia]], to make the US dollar the international [[reserve currency]] for the purchase of [[crude oil]].<ref>[https://www.history.com/news/fdr-saudi-arabia-king-oil How FDR Charmed a Saudi King and Won U.S. Access to Oil], BY: LESLEY KENNEDY, UPDATED: OCTOBER 25, 2023 | ORIGINAL: OCTOBER 18, 2018. history.com</ref>
===Triffen's dilemma===
In October 1959, Yale Professor Robert Triffin told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that the Bretton Woods system was doomed. The dollar could not survive as the world's reserve currency without requiring the [[United States]] to run ever-growing [[trade deficit]]s. This is the fatal burden that comes with issuing the world's reserve currency. Demand for US dollar-denominated reserve assets leads to inevitable trade imbalances and a weak US manufacturing environment. Artificial demand for the US dollar keeps it perpetually, unnaturally high compared to every other currency. A strong dollar makes US exports incredibly - uncompetitively - expensive. It becomes cheaper to send [[fiat]] currency overseas and have consumer goods manufactured outside the United States. The United States manufacturing base was gutted as jobs and factory equipment left the US. By the 2010s, those who lost [[job]]s and living standards became the base of the [[MAGA movement]].
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