To know and understand the USD, "King Dollar" as it was, and the implications when we lose the status as world reserve currency is a subject only a few economists speak about; #JamesRickards, #PeterSchiff and some other freethinkers who understand monetary history. Throughout the 1800's England had the gold and, England had the reserve currency. Of course all that gold and much more flowed into the USA during the two world wars and at it's ending we controlled 2/3 of the worlds gold and King Dollar became the world's reserve currency. Very few people alive today remember a time when we weren't.
We don't have all that gold anymore, but we still have the reserve currency. A few countries have been buying up the entire worlds gold production almost every year: China and Russia most prominently. What happens when they have the gold? What happens when oil is sold in gold? What will King Dollar mean when it's a pile of paper?
It seems every 30-40 years the world switches monetary systems, and we are a little long in the tooth considering we went to a floating exchange standard in 1971. Just consider for a moment all the inflation we have exported since 1971 in exchange for Japanese and Chinese and all manner of other goods. These dollars can and will come back, and it will further deform the price of everything, and not one man in 300 million is ready for that. All the money printing or electron creating that has been done has had a modest effect on prices compared to what should have happened.
Why do these dollars stay away? Because other countries need them. What happens when they don't? What happens when the dollar becomes "walking around money," as James Rickards often comments.
Can anyone envision hyper inflation here?