In 2014, Lewis Lehrman and John Mueller wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal arguing that the dollar’s status as a reserve currency harms America. In passing they asserted that “a number of conservatives, such as Bryan Riley and William Wilson at the Heritage Foundation, James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute and Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review are fiercely defending the dollar’s reserve-currency role.”
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Mueller has another op-ed that refers to the exact same group of people:
There are three main alternative solutions to the Triffin Dilemma:
First, muddle along under the current “dollar standard,” a position supported by resigned foreigners and some nostalgic Americans—among them Bryan Riley and William Wilson at the Heritage Foundation, James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute and Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review.
You might think, given these repeated descriptions, that I have written in defense of the dollar’s role as a reserve currency on at least a few occasions. But you would be wrong. I have never written anything on the subject, pro or con, fiercely or nostalgically, and I have no idea why Mueller is so convinced that the defense of the dollar’s reserve-currency status is some cause of mine. As nice as it is to be mentioned on the Journal’s op-ed page, I hope this is not going to become a triennial tradition.