Culture

“In the early 1980s the US was a net creditor relative to the rest of the world by about

$150 billion. At the end of 2004 the US was a net debtor to the rest of the world to the tune of $3 trillion, or 25 percent of US GDP” (Cameron, 2005: 127). The fragility of the US economy would be seen better from its total public debt to GDP perspective. The contribution of the worldwide USD usage to the US public debt is clear and it creates more fragility for the US economy since it makes the US economy more dependent on the worldwide popularity of USD. However, nothing exists for ever, so does the popularity of USD. When the global popularity of the USD disappear, (it has already been diminishing.²²) the US will need to handle with its debt mountains in the absence of the world’s hand in hand contribution to its total public debt.

Global Interaction

The reserve money status of the USD constitutes many positive and negative effects on the global interaction of the U.S. The global interaction concept in question is utilized to describe any sort of mutual action requiring financial expense among humans, groups, countries, NGOs etc. from different countries. Positive effects can be described with the ease provided to the U.S. citizens. While the rest of the world are bearing the additional physical and financial costs of converting their national currencies into USD before and during their global interaction phase, the U.S. citizens can use their national currency in their global interactions without paying any additional physical or financial costs of converting the currency they’ve got. Eichengreen (2012:3) gives place the situation in his book as “…this dominance is something from which we Americans derive considerable benefit. An American tourist in New Delhi paying his cab driver in dollars is spared the inconvenience of having to change money at his hotel.” He also includes American banks and firms into the group which is in advantage of the widespread use of the USD.

Although reserve currency status of the USD creates many positive effects on the global interaction of the US., it creates some responsibilities to the US., which can be regarded as negative effect. As it was underlined in the related chapters, USD has a dominant status in the global scale with its 62 percent share in world currency composition of official exchange and it makes the U.S. more responsible, accountable and proactive in its operations related with the USD to its value and economy in addition to the world’s economy linked to the USD. As USD is demanded immensely by all around the world, the US. has to take the responsibility of regulation, distribution and protection of the USD. The responsibility of the U.S. is greater than any other country since they (Euro is absent) do not constitute more than 5 percent of the world currency composition of official exchange. From this point of view, the use of USD as value of standard can be considered to have negative effect on the U.S.’ global interaction in addition to the positive effects underlined above.

National Culture, Identity and Consciousness

The global use of USD has many effects on the U.S.’ national culture, identity and consciousness. From this point of view, it is beneficial to underline the definition of nation.

Heywood (1997:109) describes nation as “a group of people who regard themselves as a natural political community, classically expressed through the quest for sovereign statehood.” Culture on the other hand is described by H. Hofstede, J. Hofstede and Minkov (2010:6) as “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others.” National culture thus can be described as the features carried by the citizens which differentiates a nation from others. National culture comprises customs, flags, faiths, anthems. Currency, on the other hand, would definitely be regarded as one of the components of national culture as it makes a nation unique or different than others in the sense that it bears historical, social and cultural values, symbols etc.

As Heywood (1997:187) noted “globalization is associated with homogenization process through which a relatively narrow common culture has tended to be adopted the world over. It comprises rising urbanization … and increasing cultural mixing through the

‘multiculturalization’ of national cultural traditions. Globalization is therefore seen as a threat to national culture, and so to traditionally based forms of identity.”

Benjamin Barber (1995:49) stated in his famous book Jihad vs Mcworld that

“McWorld is a product of popular culture driven by expansionist commerce. Its template is American, its form style. Its goods are as much images as matériel, an aesthetic as well as a product line. It is about culture as commodity, apparel as ideology. Its symbols are Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Cadillac motorcars ...”. On the other hand, national identity is not only a matter of will and strategy, but is enmeshed in the embodied, material ways in which we live – in the rich realm of ‘thick description’ (Edensor, 2002: 7; Geertz, 1993, )

Kudret Bülbül (2005:108; 2019:453) defines globalization as “increasing influence (in the meaning of being affected) processes among individuals, societies, states, nations in areas varying from politics to economy, from sport to art, from business to culture.” When the starting point of the globalization (which is 1960s) is taken into consideration, it can be easily put forth that the widespread use of USD is component of globalization since Bretton Woods system and its inherited effects dates backs approximately 1960s. As an era, 1960s plays significant role in the beginning of the globalization processes (Bülbül, 2019:453) and also for the worldwide use of USD. With this regard, it is visible that worldwide usage of

USD is heritage and component of economic aspect of globalization. In this sense, widespread usage of the USD has some reflections or effects on the national culture and consciousness. In this context, the effects of the worldwide use of the USD on the national culture and consciousness will be examined for both the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The Cultural and historical signs of the U.S. on the USD are visible. The U.S.

banknotes carry the Great Shield of the United States as it can be seen in the figure 5 below.

It has American eagle representing freedom. It carries 13 arrows in its left talon which stresses war while it is carrying olive branch in its right talon to stress peace. The blue ground on the shield stands for congress which unites 13 colonies of the U.S. colonies which are illustrated in by 13 lines. The thirteen stars on top of the eagle stands for a new nation. On the opposite of the great shield, an uncompleted pyramid exists to stress strength and duration. “Novus Ordo Seclorum” words below the pyramid means “a new order of ages”

stressing the new phase under the leadership of the U.S. (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 2007:4) The motto, “In God We Trust”, on the USD notes reminds the nation’s religious belief.

Figure 9. Great Seal of the United States²³

23 Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. (2007) Symbols on American Money. Retrieved on October 26, 2019 from

The global usage of the USD has positive effects on the U.S.’ national culture and consciousness due to many reasons. First of all, U.S. citizens are able to use their currency all around the world since it is valid in all transactions on the earth while other currencies are being restricted or invalidated in the international interaction ground. The U.S. citizens, thus are not being kept away from their currency which is symbol of their national culture, history, social values etc. In addition, they are being honored since their currency is demanded by the world and they’re earning a globally demanded currency in their homeland.

They don’t need any other currency to be exchanged when they’re interacting with the rest of the world and it evokes positive emotions towards their currency which is a reflection of their culture, history, etc.

The U.S. citizens feel like home regardless of wherever they’re. They can keep their national culture alive with the use of USD even if they are away from their countries since their currency evokes their national culture. While the world needs to exchange their currencies into USD and adopt their minds in terms of the USD prices when they’re getting into international interaction and it creates a negative effect on their national culture and consciousness since they can think their national currency is useless outside of their countries, the U.S. citizens are enjoying the comfort of using their currency (bearing historical and cultural symbols) all around the world without any concern. In this context, the worldwide USD use is contributing to the U.S.’ national culture and consciousness while it has many other effects on the same variables of the rest of the world.

https://www.philadelphiafed.org/education/teachers/publications/symbols-on-american-money/