It is pure stupid, by that's what governments do: protect monopolies with violent force. They would (will?) become largely irrelevant if they no longer had a monopoly on currency creation. The USD world reserve currency status is largely in place because of history (there have been many before us, Bretton Woods agreement, Nixon Shock, etc, etc) and because the US bombs and overthrows countries which get out of line. It's probably why our military budget is so insane. Team world police and all that. So sad.