Family man | Professor @MaxwellSU | Sr. Fellow @AtlanticCouncil | Fmr. China Fellow @TheWilsonCenter | Tweets: Geoeconomics, Finance, & Cleveland sports
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In his foundational IR text, "War & Change", Gilpin argues that "prestige", not power, is the "everyday currency of international relations"; prestige is how the dominant state, or hegemon, gets what it wants within the context of the int'l order it has built. 2/ 
What's interesting here is that the modern legal foundation for the US gov'ts capacity to sanction by freezing foreign gov't assets (w/in domestic & overseas US financial institutions) is based on a law passed b/c of fears of coordinated OPEC dollar sales.
...banks in non-Western countries were willing to clear Russian payments for these goods. If those banks don't operate in countries that are party to the financial sanctions regime, there was no consequence for doing this. The secondary sanctions change this. Now, those... 
First things first, these data only reflect the currency composition of *CHINA's* cross-border transactions. This is not about USD vs RMB in a global sense. Though obvious to most, its worth pointing this out because at first glance someone might draw the wrong conclusion. 2/
First, what the book is *not* about: It does not make doomsday predictions about the dollar. To the contrary, it argues💵dominance is likely here to stay. Yet, US financial sanctions still generate blowback that could weaken their effectiveness in the future! 2/18
Starting w/ the reported 50% 👆in # of daily settlements:
What's going on here? By cementing himself in power, Xi has cemented expectations that Chinese financial and economic policies will continue to trend in an anti-market direction. 
