By Gabor Steingart

The dollar is still the world’s reserve currency, even though it hasn’t deserved this status for a long time. The devaluation of the dollar can’t be stopped — it can only be deferred. The result could be a world economic crisis.

Editor’s Note: The following essay has been excerpted from the German best’seller “World War for Wealth: The Global Grab for Power and Prosperity” by SPIEGEL editor Gabor Steingart. SPIEGEL ONLINE is publishing a series of excerpts from the book.

The two things investors crave most are high yields and high security. Since you can never have both at the same time, the moods of investors are like an emotional roller coaster. They shift constantly from fear to greed and back — although major investors, like corporations and states, clearly prefer security over fancy returns. Their fear is stronger than their greed. They’ll freely relinquish the really fat profits as long as the stability of their billions is guaranteed. They’re afraid of political unrest, they loathe overly dramatic changes in currency value and the mere thought of creeping inflation sends them into a state of panic.

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