Investors may worship money but their love of the world’s reserve currency is ever more fickle. A couple of years ago, the dollar’s pre-eminence came into question, with supermodels refusing to get out of bed for anything other than euros. With the credit crunch, investors fled back to dollars. Today, the dollar is once again increasingly spurned.

In the short term, the dollar looks to be trading as a safe-haven asset. Take the risk premium investors have demanded for holding dollar assets since the beginning of 1999. Looking at the dollar versus the euro, Barclays Capital defines this excess return as the interest rate differential between the US and the eurozone consistent with investors being indifferent between dollars and euros. In times of crisis a lower premium is required to own dollars, whereas in calmer periods, around 2006 say, investors demand an excess return of up to 100 basis points.