The US has been leveraging itself in recent decades, piling up public and external debt – a trend that could jeopardise the special position the dollar occupies in the international monetary system. This column argues that the US is risking another ‘Triffin’ event, in the form of a confidence crisis and a run on the dollar. The current situation echoes that of the UK in the 1920s and the US in the 1960s. The crises that ended both episodes marked dramatic turning points in the history of the international monetary system.