A global 'super currency'?

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

link

Some within the IMF, and within the US Treasury, are calling for a scheme involving a global super-currency to ease the financial crisis.

And you guys said it would never happen.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, first of all, in order for that to work, every country would have to accept it. And I can think of a few which wouldn't be too fond of the idea of adopting a currency other than their own.

Besides, this isn't a tradeoff of one currency for another, it's busting out the printing press to hand a lot of new cash out. Which is the opposite of helpful due to the inflation it causes.

Another thing which raises a red flag is that George Soros supports it. That man's a sleazy greedy bastard. So I'm wiling to bet that in some way he's determiend he personally stands to gain from the idea.

[Craig91 12]

...New World Order? j/k

[Aontan 0]

Originally posted by: CraigKingOfIreland

...New World Order? j/k quote>

I was wondering how long it'd be before someone mentioned that.

[EmergentFungus 29]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Another thing which raises a red flag is that George Soros supports it. That man's a sleazy greedy bastard.

quote>

He's worth $11b but has given away $6b. He's just sucessful and a philantropist.

[panthersimcity4 162]

This idea has epic fail written all over it. I think different currencies is much better... it represents the diversity of the World and different cultures.

[Easy Bakes 253]

We knew eventualy all currency would be called Credits.

[coolotter88 2]

Yes, Credits!

but out here, we need something more tangible.

[Haljackey 17,302]

Well this has to happen sometime, why not now?

Its such a simple idea, but implementing it is another thing. I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[hamsterTK 93]

All I care about is would the value of the dollars I have now increase or decrease?

I guess this is why people buy gold coins.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Well, it probably will not happen soon, as many countries would be unwilling to adopt a global currency, making it not truly "global", just international.

However, if such a scheme is adopted, the currency must be backed by a commodity. Giving a central bank that much power over every economy is dangerous. It is so dangerous, I cannot stress it enough. Control the currency and interest rates and you control inflation. If you control inflation you control the economy. Imagine that power over every economy. Imagine the very real risk of global hyperinflation. It will come sooner or later with a global fiat currency.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[warrior 169]

I'm not sure, but how would things like the conversion rates between different currencies be managed?

Also if the whole world is using the same currency (and economy?) then if something goes wrong, then more would be done as instead of only effected one country initially it would affect everyone.

And some currencies have such similar exchange rate, there's not much difference

Also what bout countries like Zimbabwe, how would that affect a global currency?

If in the beginning we'd all used a global currency it would have been better than trying to change to one know.

Jonathan

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

The global currency has been attempted before to a degree, by the Roman Empire. Different provincial areas minted their own coinage under the authority of Rome, but the value was expressed in Roman coinage terms. Kind of like the Euro.

China and Russia are really behind this, with France being a backup supporter. Gordon Brown has been railing a lot for 'global governance' lately, so it stands to reason he is a supporter.

Anything that China and Russia want so badly is highly unlikely to be good for the US. "Upper Class Twit" Gordon Brown appears to be one of the biggest fools Britian has ever produced (sorry to our Brit friends here), and I won't even speculate on what the French have been smoking.

[EmergentFungus 29]

Very few English like Brown, Darling or Labour in general so fear not.

[belfastuniguy 18]

Anything that China and Russia want so badly is highly unlikely to be good for the US. "Upper Class Twit" Gordon Brown appears to be one of the biggest fools Britian has ever produced (sorry to our Brit friends here), and I won't even speculate on what the French have been smoking.quote>

Firstly he's not actually upper class...secondly its Britain not Britian....thirdly the French know nothing about economics or how to run an economy so I never listen to them anyway. Rather enjoy the French criticising our economy when they have millions of French people striking on a seemingly constant basis and paralysing the country.

The example of the Roman Empire and Euro are not actually that accurate when it comes to an 'international currency' Roman provinces didn't exactly have much choice and European nations all agreed given the closeness of European nations, movement and markets. It made sense for Europe to have a sole currency...with some exceptions obviously.

[AeonProjects 20]

i think its sounds terrible, good for some bankers but not exactly the best idea for the rest of us, It leaves too much power to a few people at the top and with global governance, it dose the same. A one world economy is just a step forward to a one world government and a small percentage of people having complete control over the world, that much power was never meant to be in the hands of anyone.

aeon

[TheQuiltedLlama 34]

Originally posted by: manticorefan

Anything that China and Russia want so badly is highly unlikely to be good for the US. "Upper Class Twit" Gordon Brown appears to be one of the biggest fools Britian has ever produced (sorry to our Brit friends here), and I won't even speculate on what the French have been smoking.

quote>

I'm not exactly Gordon Brown's biggest fan, but I think that the media portrayal of him is often unfair. You call him 'one of the biggest fools britain has ever produced', this is bit harsh i think. Clearly, he hasn't exactly had a great year, what with the British economy begging to collapse almost as soon as he took office. And although he certainly should shoulder some of the blame, I think that as chancellor he did pretty well. Despite what the Tories like to make out, Britain was actually in a pretty decent position, debt-wise, to allow him to borrow the money need to peruse the Keynesian tactics, which are generally accepted as being the best way of dealing with recession.

As for 'Upper class twit', don't know how well acquainted with British politics you are, but the opposition leader is, arguably, a far bigger 'twit' and certainly more upper-class.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: EmergentFungus

He's worth $11b but has given away $6b. He's just sucessful and a philantropist.quote>

He got rich through pure speculation, not by doing any actual work or contributing anything to the world. So he doesn't deserve his wealth.

Though, it's his politics (particularly, his huge political donations) that I can't stand. Waaaay out there to the left. "People's Republic of America" left. So, not only is he insane, but he's got money and power to do a lot of damage with that insanity.

[Msprintz 25]

Ah the good ole' "super currency", the idea behind it that a unified currency would enable and promote a unified economic policy. While good on paper, it's not good when carried out in reality. This issue has arisen in the EU, where a group of separate yet tightly knit nations operate independent one another.... government policies are individual, most notably economic policy.

The only way a global currency would work is if the world can be united under one political banner, an accomplishment that would be unfathomable let alone outright impossible. Such a feat would ensure economic policies that wouldn't differ from place to place, an economic utopia so to speak. It's a pipe dream that probably won't happen.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Originally posted by: belfastuniguy.secondly, it's Britain not Britian....quote>

Of all the typos on ST, you had to single that one out. Picky picky picky. I worked all night plus overtime, and had a slug of bourbon. It could have been far worse. By the way, I added the apostrophe and comma that you missed when you criticized my spelling mistake.

The example of the Roman Empire and Euro are not actually that accurate when it comes to an 'international currency' Roman provinces didn't exactly have much choice and European nations all agreed given the closeness of European nations, movement and markets. It made sense for Europe to have a sole currency...with some exceptions obviously.quote>

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

Not to mention the simple fact that the Roman Empire hardly constitutes "global".

Barbarossa

quote>

Hence the 'kinda'. The Roman Empire was about as close to 'global' as one could get in antiquity. Picky picky picky.

And Duke is right, Soros is a madman. IMHO it's not just his wealth he doesn't deserve, it's also continued drawing of breath.

[SuburbianNightmare 0]

Surely it would be easier if the UK changed over to the euro wouldn't it? instead of thinks of Super Currency.

:S

[Boggy1 45]

SuburbianNightmare: It's more of a national pride thing. We don't consider ourselves part of Europe per se, and there is a lot of anti-European sentiment here. Some think that by replacing the pound with the Euro would be taking away our cultural heritage.

I'd say it'd be easier just to peg the pound to the Euro exchange rate, so that they are always at parity.

[aaaaa 1]

I already invented such a super-currency. The new currency is backed by all kinds of real assets and commodities. For example, gold, silver, copper, iron, crude oil, natural gas, coal, wheat, corn, rice, beef and many tradable commodities. It also includes real estate like land and buildings, houses. It also includes hard-currency like dollar, Euro, Yen etc. and other investment mean like national bond of some countries, securities of S&P companies. In a word, all kinds of economic valuable things.

I call it "Mac". One Mac is equivalent to price of McDonald Big Mac ham berger.

This Mac currency is very stable and will not influenced by inflation because the value of it is based on real assert, not paper money.

This makes the Mac best investment to preserve value in times of inflation except solid gold. It is also unaffected by up /downs of foreign-exchange rate because it is diversified in all the major resources and currency of the world.

What do you think about my idea?

[belfastuniguy 18]

Originally posted by: SuburbianNightmare

Surely it would be easier if the UK changed over to the euro wouldn't it? instead of thinks of Super Currency.

:Squote>

aahh no

People in the UK do not wish to join the Euro for various reasons. I oppose it simply becuase we lose ability to have national control of monetary policy.

[BurroDiablo 222]

Yeah, but the majority of people oppose it because their scared of Europe. Their scared of EU policy, their scared we'd lose our national identity and their scared that somehow this will lead us closer to a European Super-state in which we render the lessons from World War 1 and 2 absolutely pointless. I read a Hitler-esc hate-speech of a book that basically outlined the same rediculous reasons (plus 98 more) to hate Europe and all it stands for. I failed to understand the reasoning... since when has Unity been a bad thing? I think national pride in this country can sometimes verge on the pathetic.

Personally, I wouldn't mind being part of the Euro... although to keep things a little easier, I'd wait until the Queen abdicates or dies (whatever comes first. Everybodys gotta go sometime), we'd be losing our Queen flavoured money if that happened anyway. A Global or International currency however, i'm not a big fan... I think for the amount of countries there are in the World, we'd need to make the note and coin designs all the same in order to keep Conterfitting under control. I can't see many countries wanting to use notes that fail to recognise their nation.

[lucky7 73]

Hmhm, a very interesting topic. The idea itself is not bad if things would be a little different on Earth. This brings me to the points one should be aware of and that have already been mentioned: a 'Super-bank' adding more control to us all? No, not really, I don't like this idea. It would be even more simplier to manipulate regional economies than it is now. The gap between the so-called poor and rich which already is a system per se to secure certain mechanisms (unfortunately...) would get even bigger.

There would be no possible way to interact as there's only one currency.

So, if there is already a single currency (taken that this is true sometimes) why not implement a single government shortly after?? No, I do not want to have that at all, sorry. This would certainly be a very 'Orwellian' structure- wait: don't we already find ourselves in the pre-steps of that? Well.

lucky7

[Benedict 3,119]

Wait, what's wrong with all of us switching to the Simolean?

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

How fitting that it features the Kremlin.