A swap line, a swap line, my kingdom for a swap line!
The amazing David Beckworth and I chat swap lines and more.
TLDR: There’s more going on with swap line diplomacy than meets the eye.
These supposedly technical instruments may be the gunboats of our time, projecting power not across oceans, but across liquidity networks, and drawing seigniorage from them. If that framing holds, then a silent rivalry between USD and RMB systems has already been playing out for some time, as explored in my swap line thread here.
Izabella Kaminska@izakaminska
3/ American 'dollar swap line' diplomacy (or, if you prefer, weaponisation) is mostly a counter to Chinese 'yuan swap line' diplomacy. While the Fed has 5 lines in place, China has 31.. including with the ECB, BoE, BoC and the UAE.
2:31 AM · Apr 25, 2026 · 2.54K Views
2 Replies · 5 Reposts · 31 Likes
Izabella Kaminska@izakaminska
4/ While developed world swap lines (chart below) are used mostly to relieve funding pressure, Political economist Daniel McDowell, has argued that Beijing’s swap lines are often present in the absence of any renminbi funding pressures abroad and thus act mostly a form of
2:37 AM · Apr 25, 2026 · 2.04K Views
1 Reply · 2 Reposts · 22 Likes
Reports that the UAE may position itself to host swap lines from both sides — while drawing on neither — would signal an emerging role as neutral ground. In effect, it could become a venue where competing blocs “parlay” and negotiate how global liquidity channels are governed and priced.