Since 2009, the United States has unleashed two giant loads of fiat currency on the world in what officials euphemistically termed “quantitative easing,” because it eases monetary conditions. But nations of the world are less concerned with QE’s name than with its consequences, and the fact that it is only the most recent of Washington’s poisonous fiscal policies. And many have taken decisive steps to escape being held hostage to the U.S. dollar.

Asia

The combined amount of reserves held by Asian central banks is $3.3 trillion, which equates to 46 percent of total global national reserves. During 2011, it was these Asian nations, with China at the helm, that lunged away from the dollar the most vigorously.

Since the end of 2010, China has trimmed its holding of U.S. dollars by $27.5 billion, and, though it remains the top buyer of U.S. treasury bonds, Beijing is taking further significant strides away from the greenback. At the end of December, officials from China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies, unveiled a plan to allow direct exchange of their currencies for bilateral trade, which would negate the need for Beijing and Tokyo to buy U.S. dollars.