April 13 EASC Colloq: Ho-fung Hung

The tenth East Asian Colloquium of the spring semester is Friday, the 13^th of April.
PRESENTER: Ho-fung Hung (Sociology, Johns Hopkins University)

TOPIC: In Dollar We Trust? Cold War and China in the (Un)making of the Empire’s Money
DATE: Friday, April 13, 2012

TIME: 12:00-1:15 p.m.
LOCATION: Ballantine 004

This talk seeks to explain the puzzling continuation of the dollar hegemony ever since the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary order in 1971. Ho-fung Hung argues that the status of the dollar, a fiat currency after 1971, as the most prominent currency in foreign exchange reserves and international transaction has been grounded on US political-military supremacy, which Washington employed effectively to preclude the rise of viable alternative currency. The lack of alternative to the dollar enabled the US to unilaterally manipulate the dollar’s value to meet the demand of its domestic economy, slowing its economic decline and maintaining the global confidence in the dollar in the last four decades. The recent economic rise of China, which has become a significant geopolitical player outside the US-centered global security umbrella originating in the Cold War, together with US’s escalating current account deficit with it, has been reducing US’s capacity in maintaining the dollar hegemony through unilateral manipulation of world currency values. The ongoing monetary conflict between the US and China will be of systemic significance, as its resolution will determine the future of the dollar’s global hegemony in the decades to come. 

Ho-fung Hung is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstration, Riots, and Petitions in Mid-Qing Dynasty (Columbia University Press 2011) and editor of China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism (Johns Hopkins University Press 2009).  His articles appeared in American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, New Left Review, Review of International Political Economy, Asian Survey, etc.. His works won major research awards from four different ASA sections (Political Sociology, Comparative-Historical Sociology, Asia and Asian Americans, Political Economy of the World System), Social Science History Association, and Switzerland’s World Society Foundation. His research has been featured or cited in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian (UK), Folha de S. Paulo (Brazil), Expresso (Portugal), Straits Times (Singapore), Xinhua Monthly (China), Globe and Mail (Canada), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), among others. 

Persons with disabilities interested in attending our events who may require assistance, please contact us in advance at (812) 855-3765.

East Asian Studies Center

Indiana University

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Memorial Hall West 207

Bloomington, IN  47405

Phone:  (812) 855-3765

Fax:  (812) 855-7762

http://www.iu.edu/~easc/

E-mail:  easc@indiana.edu

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