Larry Fink Says Greenback Still Best for Long Term

The slumping U.S. dollar’s dominant position as the world’s reserve currency hasn’t done  much to shake Larry Fink’s faith in the world’s most preferred reserve asset. The chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK), who is poised to head the world’s biggest money manager when BlackRock completes its purchase of Barclays Global Investors this year, said the greenback remains the best currency and reserve asset for investors seeking to protect wealth.

“I still believe it is the best place to be if you have a large pool of money,” Fink  said today in an interview. Compared with the euro, Japanese yen and U.K. sterling, “I choose the dollar.”[Bloomberg]

The credit crisis and concerns about a ballooning budget deficit that keeps the U.S. dependent on foreign financing have eroded confidence in the greenback and has reduced demand for the relative safety of U.S. assets. As a result, the dollar’s status has come into question by the BRIC leaders who have discussed in more than one occasion substituting other assets for their dollar holdings.

The Dollar Index sank as low as 76.010 today, the weakest level since Sept. 22, 2008.

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