Venezuela’s Socialist government, a vocal critic of the dollar’s global dominance, has hired the exclusive supplier of U.S. currency paper to provide the bulk of its new bank notes. Earlier this month, Venezuela’s central bank awarded Boston-based securities printer Crane Currency the largest part of a contract for new bill denominations needed to keep up with triple-digit inflation, according to people involved in contract negotiations. “Given their antipathy towards the U.S., I’m surprised that they would even let a U.S. firm participate,” said Owen Linzmayer, a San Francisco-based banknote expert who catalogs world currencies. The central bank and Crane, which has provided the U.S. Treasury with blank currency paper since the 1879, declined to comment. As inflation soars, the bills in circulation across Venezuela are nearly worthless, turning the most basic transactions into […]