Brent Johnson: The De-Dollarization Delusion & $USD’s Enduring Reign

Brent Johnson, CEO of Santiago Capital, joins Anthony Scaramucci for a deep-dive conversation that reveals the painful realities of attempting de-dollarization and the enduring global power of the US dollar. Brent, renowned for his “Dollar Milkshake Theory,” also shares unique insights on Bitcoin, his outlook on China's economy, advice for young finance professionals, and much more.

Chapters:
1:38 - The Origin of Brent Johnson’s Dollar Milkshake Theory
15:48 - Can the BRICS Countries De-Dollarize?
19:26 - Can a Trump Administration Weaken the Dollar?
23:58 - Bitcoin’s Role in Global Finance
27:29 - Actionable Investing Advice from Brent
31:58 - Audience Question: Are Current Stock Valuations Sustainable?
32:34 - Audience Question: Thoughts on Returning to the Gold Standard
33:45 - Audience Question: Outlook for China’s Economy
34:43 - Audience Question: Advice for Young Finance Professionals

#BrentJohnson #DeDollarization #USDollar #DollarMilkshakeTheory #GlobalEconomy #Bitcoin #CurrencyWars #EconomicOutlook #AnthonyScaramucci #InvestmentStrategy #SantiagoCapital #GlobalFinance #USDEndurance #Wealthion #Wealth #Finance

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[yingkleung]

Thanks for letting us know that everything is hunky dory. Let's keep spending our borrowed money and continue to have a great time!

[DumstigB]

China has 100B per month trade surplus. The only thing US can manufacture is USD

[cstrebor]

Great Job by both Brent and Anthony - THANK YOU !!! Wish this program went for 2 hours. Anthony, thank you for letting Brent run with the details, background info, and frame work.

[bobmorane]

If you think of the S American crisis, Asian crisis, Russian crisis, the common thread was dollar loans, i.e loans made in dollar denominations and repayable in dollars. That was the issue because the dollar index can shoot up or pull back and depends on the Fed rate as well. That's one huge downside Brent never seems to care about. The other issue he never mentions in his dollar milkshake is what happens when the dollar asset treasuries that a country holds are confiscated or sanctioned. That scares the sh**t out of those middle east kingdoms and all little kingdoms around the world. The Russians got a taste of it and they have lots of real commodity assets in the ground, so do many global south countries. And the last issue is the piping, that famous swift system that can be used to sanction and starve any country under attack by the rule based order. He never talks about how swiftly the Brics countries are coming up with their own piping system to circumvent the swift. So, until Brent is willing to address these 3 issues, he's just selling hot air mostly.

[truckerjournal]

Im not saying you are totally wrong. Or that i know everything. But i will say. It sounds like you are purposly misunderstanding what brics is really trying to do.

[TheAbidutta]

The intent of BRICS currency is not intended to be full scale de-dollarization.
But the growing Brics block will trade mostly without USD

[timmusick]

That map has been behind Brent for years and nobody asked about it until now. All questions are answered in time. Thanks

[theholyearthgod]

Milkshake theory encourages the modern monetary theory. The economy takes on lots of water as our economy grows weaker but the milkshake is detrimental to the outside economies. We should be good. Now I feel better

[markblankenship]

The dollar will be one of the safer harbors, but not without pain. No one can ignore the fact that the demand for the dollar is going to decrease in trend. That’s what happens when the world outside the USA wants to get away from the dollar. The outside world can’t do that too quickly without damaging itself, so it is slow and methodical. We will never be able to convince the world to come back into Breton Woods again. We have made the world fear the dollar, which is our power. As the demand for dollars decreases, inflation will likely occur domestically. No one knows the timeline or impact. Most Americans will live by the treasury and die by the treasury. The world is not gold back, that’s true. But the world is seeking protection from the dollar by getting into gold, which is also a tier one asset. This wrestles control away from the US. To say the intent and movement by the world to leave the dollar as soon as possible is not present is to not see the elephant in the room. You can ultimately only enforce and protect the dollar with military action, and if that isn’t viable, then the world economic powers just continue to shift the monetary system to the east, sacrificing the US. These are interesting times.

[PhilipWong]

The U.S. tax system is divided into federal and local taxes. U.S. laws do not allow the federal government to fund local governments unless it is an emergency. The federal government is funding its large budget deficit by printing money, which local governments cannot do. In 2024, 50 of the 75 core cities in the United States are running a budget deficit and heading toward bankruptcy, and they have to raise taxes or they won't be able to pay their firefighters, schools, and police. Rich Americans living in these cities are moving to cities that are not facing bankruptcy. The inflation rate may have been lowered, but prices remain at inflated levels. The U.S. dollar has devalued by over 98% from its original value of $35 per ounce.

[dondit]

If America is asked or demanded to pay in non-dollars to purchase food/good/items from other countries (for its consumption). what can USA do?

[RichardSKLim]

If the DXY trades higher by 10- 20 pct in 2025/26, this would make Brent Johnson a legend on Wall Street.

[arturl]

Great stuff! Many thanks. The USD pendulum makes the world go around. And we need to learn how to adjust wisely. The danger now is that enormous debt is definitely gonna collapse but the world insatiable hunger for the USD will save it as usual.

[bhaskartripathi]

The only variable that was not there before to de-dollarize was a 2nd power pole who had the military and economic might to undertake such effort. We have one now!
Also, de-dollarization will be "more" "painful" for which side, it's anybody's guess. The other side would be most willing to take the less pain for a bigger goal.

[California]

Brent Johnson = for the lack of better word

Just teasing u Brent 🤣🤣🤣 love your input, , , always

[russellsnead]

I think this is more hope than anything. He’s thinking of a system where the world has to include. The BRI is meant to create a market equal to the consumption capacity of the US. And what if the decide not to pay back the debt.

[patrickmcgoohan]

The USD and 10 year Treasury are the risk free rate, I'll remember that one. I wonder what would happen if the 10 year Treasury went negative?

[online_buff]

Funny logic! Just because USD is a unit of currency it would continue to be the currency of safety! The guest does not factor in an SDR equivalent denominated basket of currency!

[andywurst]

Around 16" is the pain to de-dollarize necessarily felt by Russia, China, Saudi? Why would they care if others felt pain.

[martinkjeldsen-kragh]

I won't argue with the overall points, but there are a couple of things I find strange. Since the US is now a massive net debtor nation, the rest of the world could de-dollarize by selling off their USD assets. They do not depend on the US to be able to do this. It sounds like the argument would work better if the US were a net creditor. In that hypothetical situation, the debtors would have to earn som dollars to pay off their debt. As far as the eurodollar market is concerned, I don't see the point either. If one european owes another european 1M usd, and they decide, that USD is no longer an appropriate currency, they can decide to use e.g. the euro instead without help from the US and without needing, on an aggregate basis, more dollar liquidity. I will explain this in detail if somebody disagrees.