United Kingdom · France · Fortune Technology
Ray Dalio says the U.S. just had its ‘Suez moment’—and history says what comes next could end an empire
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
“Watch out for allies and creditors losing confidence, the loss of its reserve currency status, the selling of its debt assets, and the weakening of its currency, especially relative to gold.”
Key facts
- The dollar’s own arc runs roughly 80 years, from the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, where the victorious United States anchored the postwar monetary order to a simple promise: every dollar
- Meanwhile, weeks after the outbreak of hostilities, the U.S. national debt crossed $39 trillion on March 18, 2026
- The U.S. had already suffered credit downgrades from all three major ratings agencies, S&P in 2011, Fitch in 2023, and Moody’s in May 2025
- Ray Dalio didn’t write that sentence about Britain in 1956
Summary
That afternoon, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden received a phone call that ended an empire. In late October 1956, Britain and France, alongside Israel, invaded Egypt after President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, the vital trade artery connecting Europe to Asia. The United States, alarmed by the unilateral action and unwilling to allow its allies to destabilize the Cold War equilibrium, applied crushing pressure.