How to Prepare your Portfolio for the Possibilities that arrive when the Fourth Turning is over.

Johnson argues that the dollar’s global position is sustained by eurodollar debt and dollar-denominated obligations rather than primarily by gold or oil. He says this debt infrastructure, reinforced by systems such as SWIFT, makes a near-term displacement of the United States or its currency unlikely.

Johnson presents dollar stablecoins as a potential extension of U.S. monetary influence: roughly 99% are dollar-based, and their low-cost access through phones and internet connections could increase global demand for dollar balances. He argues that this could also erode the monetary sovereignty of countries with weaker currencies.

Johnson does not view gold and the dollar as mutually exclusive, arguing that both could become more important as markets place greater emphasis on physical goods. He expects gold to rise substantially and notes that it gained 228% against the dollar over 16 years and has overtaken U.S. Treasuries as a share of global reserves, while rejecting an imminent or inevitable return to hard money.

Johnson describes money as both a market-selected commodity and a sovereign token imposed by governments or powerful institutions, with the dominant form depending on local systems and settlement obligations. He uses the Mercury dime—worth 10 cents in a drugstore but more than $1,000 to a collector or buyer elsewhere—to illustrate how the same asset can carry different valid values.

Johnson argues that synchronized upheaval across the United States, China, Europe, Russia, Africa, South America, and India compounds uncertainty rather than merely adding to it. Because of that uncertainty, he cautions against confident forecasts, including shorting the dollar or assuming a definite American decline from the Rome analogy.