story
Even in those parts of Mexico and Caribbean countries where the economy is heavily dependent on US tourism - and the US dollar will be accepted at retail shops; the price difference between paying in dollars and paying in local currency is going to be against the US dollar, and for any significant transaction, you will be better off paying in the local currency.
More to the point, it is true that a considerable part of international trade is conducted in USD. It is also true that the USA tries very hard to keep it like that (more so through economic sanctions than the military might), but it's hyperbole to state that any country that does not accept USD will get attacked.
For example, India and China buy a non-trivial part of their oil in roubles and have not been attacked - so far.
How could you mistake a coffee shop for a country?
Seems like you want to misread me on purpose?
If they get a deal with an oil selling country that says otherwise, USA sends in the army (usually to the seller, not the buyer).
_Libya_
2008 https://www.cfr.org/blog/libya-shunning-dollar (Libya Shunning the Dollar?)
2011 Invaded
_Iraq_
2000 https://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/30/iraq.un.euro.reut... (U.N. to let Iraq sell oil for euros, not dollars)
2003 invaded
2006 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/2/14/syria-picks-euros-o...
No direct invasion but proxy war (lessons learned).
In most cases e.g. a French tourist would be fine taking euros, but a British tourist can take pounds and not pay to convert to dollars or euros first.
I've seen Americans try to pay for taxi's in Thailand with USD, the drivers aren't interested, it's a hassle more than anything. In cambodia on the other hand, yes, they'll take it.
Depends entirely on how stable the local currency is, if it's reasonably stable and well managed then probably they won't be interested.
Or at least nicely told to go and exchange it for real money (local currency) somewhere, then come back and try again. :)
Here are a few cherry picked examples
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/half-payments-caracas...
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293974-i368-k4798488-...
https://www.voanews.com/a/lebanon-leans-on-us-dollar-to-cope...
Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Belize, and Colombia are places where I’ve done this personally and lots of Europeans were doing the same.
Friends and family in Costa Rica even advised that local currency wasn’t necessary and suggested bringing crisp bills from my bank.
(In small towns it may be more difficult, but not impossible, specially if you are nice.)
The USD has value because you need to pay your taxes in USD, and if you don't pay your taxes, the government will take away your freedom. It has nothing to do with people in other countries transacting in that country's local currency.
If it was about taxes people would just hold something else and converted some temporarily to pay their taxes leaving government with currency nobody wants.
It's all about people's trust and willingness to store savings and make loans in a given current.
Wouldn’t this expose those people to exchange rate risk that they could completely avoid by holding USD instead?
Not following this at all. You having to pay tax in USD means you're going to prefer holding USD and being paid in USD as well. Anything else would be strictly inferior, as now you have to worry about doing conversions all the time.
Note that it's mandatory for taxes to be withheld with each paycheck, and those withheld taxes must be paid in, you guessed it, USD, so you must be paid in USD as well.
Huge part of the world have to pay taxes in their local currencies and yet prefers storing savings in USD.
> Anything else would be strictly inferior, as now you have to worry about doing conversions all the time.
You weight it against other pros and cons. Even US billionairs do not store their savings in USD cash, and don't seem to mind "conversions all the time".
I assume per your definition of "country" Norway should be a country as well.
Norway is a major party in selling oil and gas, but doing it so in NOK. Norway is not even part of NATO. At least until now.
So when do you expect an attack by the USA military?
Its neighbors Sweden and Finland are EU members whose citizens have recently come to widespread agreement that NATO membership is desirable.
"In Consideration of the assignment described under Article 2.1 above, Buyer shall pay to Seller a post tax amount of NOK [zz] ([zz]), ref. Article 5."
https://offshorenorge.no/globalassets/dokumenter/naringspoli...
Also the measurement is NOK: https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/production-and-exports/expo...
NOK is recommended. That document doesn't say what currency is used for actual transfers.
Odd… because the head of NATO is Norwegian.
Your entire comment is completely misinformed.
