Hi Ed,
I wasn't sure whether you thought single currency was a good thing, or
yet another reason to acquire gold for fear it will come to pass.
McKenna's idealistic views would be worth thinking about if there were
such a thing as true global value or meaning to said standard currency.
This particular perspective reflects someone's ideal Western version of
value, which has no basis of fairness to it whatsoever, here or in
Mauritius, but as history has shown, a single currency ensures that
those who have most of it benefit from its sole distribution. Iraq tried
the more beneficial Euro for oil currency until Bush 43 declared the end
of major combat in his takeover war, and switched the oil currency back
to the dollar because, thereby, imperial US could indirectly continue to
tax Iraq, just as Rome did all other nations in its single currency
conquered world.
Countless examples of fictional wealth tabulated by computers as money
have flooded the collective of recognized assets, but still maintain
very questionable value. The most outstanding example is, once again,
that of currency markets profits. Money made off of global gambling on
various nations' currency values have far exceeded in one day the sum
total of the US annual GDP. A loss of $3.3 trillion Defense budget to US
taxpayers is not even investigated. The money was either honestly made
or not, and which designation determines the value or loss? If it is
ever recovered, would they ever determine or admit to its origin,
restore it to the budget, the taxed people or to the covert group within
the DOD? Corporate fraud of billions and trillions today simply vanishes
into the ether. Someone still has the money, and it is laundered back
into the faulty system. What extra effects, indirect taxation and
otherwise, would this kind of activity have on poor nations' economies,
where subsistence wage is deemed to be two bucks a day, and economies
are most often local for reasons of survival? If the US dollar
collapses, or even drops much further, where does that leave poor
nations, let alone Canada? How will we deal with the illegal wealth of
poor nations when we can't reconcile with its existence in our own
wealthier nations? Yet, these illegal funds account for a huge part of
the system.
Single currency fever is being spread at a time when there is a push for
the rest of N. America to shore up the US dollar, 'cause it's goin'
down. The Security and Prosperity agreement is at work here, being
peddled by the floundering US government, looking for a way to keep up
the illusion of prosperity while taking over. It would be a disaster for
Canada to join the sinking ship that wants control. Helping them is
dangerous enough, but adopting their fears and unsustainable practices,
and giving them the reins for the sake of the illusion of security and
prosperity is another.
The Federal Reserve is a "reluctant central bank"??? If they didn't wish
to have control, it never would have been formed in the first place! A
burden indeed.
Acquiring gold in this era, in my opinion, is still good advise, but
potable water and clean green land would be the better bet.
A single currency will work once we're all eating GM foods, have no
unique resources left in the world, and have resigned completely to a
New World Order. That, or the world simultaneously achieves peace,
prosperity and well-being throughout.
Cheers,
Natalia
Ed Weick wrote:
Worth thinking about.
Ed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Globalization creating a 'deadly brew' for national currencies
BARRIE MCKENNA
Globe and Mail
July 17, 2007 at 8:46 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Hardly a day goes by that someone, somewhere isn't
griping about currencies.
In Ontario, embattled Ontario manufacturers rail about the suddenly
airborne loonie. Members of the U.S. Congress want to bash China for
fiddling with the yuan. And ordinary Argentines would rather hold just
about any currency than their own.
So maybe it's time to rethink the whole idea of national currencies.
That, at least, is the provocative thesis of Benn Steil, director of
international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
In an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, Mr. Steil suggests that
scores of countries - from the Americas and Asia to Europe and the
Middle East - should simply give up on their own currencies and
embrace one of the world's global currencies, such as the euro or the
U.S. dollar.
With the gold standard gone, marginal currencies simply can't survive
against the sheer weight of globalization. Inflation and high interest
rates are a constant threat.
"National currencies and global markets simply do not mix," Mr. Steil
argued. "Together they make a deadly brew of currency crises and
geopolitical tension and create ready pretexts for damaging
protectionism."
Get rid of monetary nationalism, along with unloved currencies, and
you'll rid the system of a major source of instability, he concluded.
Mr. Steil points to Europe in the developed world and Ecuador (which
uses the U.S. dollar) in the developing world as shining examples of
why fewer currencies are a good thing.
"Europeans used to say that being a country required having a national
airline, a stock exchange, and a currency," he wrote. "Today, no
European country is any worse off without them. Even grumpy Italy has
benefited enormously from the lower interest rates and permanent end
to lira speculation."
China, he suggested, would do well to give up the yuan in favour of a
"pan-Asian" currency that would rival the euro and the dollar, while
allowing the country to liberalize its financial and capital markets.
Just about every other country would be better off with the dollar or
the euro as they gradually integrate into global financial markets.
Even better, he suggested, would be a new gold-based international
monetary system, backed by private gold banks, rather than governments.
Where does that leave a country such as Canada? Its economy is puny
compared with the United States or Europe, and the bulk of its trade
is with its southern neighbour.
That can be a problem when the currency swings. The loonie's recent
surge (past 95 cents U.S.) is nice if you're vacationing in Maine this
summer. But it's pretty devastating if you're making auto parts and
other manufactured goods for the U.S. market.
The rest of the Canadian economy - oil, most other commodities and the
service sector - are humming along fine. The net result is an economy
that appears much stronger than the United States' (3.5-per-cent
annualized first-quarter growth vs. 0.7 per cent in the U.S.). But
pockets of the manufacturing heartland in Ontario and Quebec are
hurting badly.
Wouldn't it be nice to have it both ways - stability for exporters and
an end to currency swings.
Mr. Steil seems to think so. In an interview, he said Canada isn't
like Brazil or Turkey, where the threat of a currency crisis is ever
present.
"Canada can certainly sustain a national currency, because Canadians,
as well as foreigners, treat the currency as a reliable store of
wealth," he said. "Canada is at no significant risk of a currency crisis."
But that doesn't mean Canada couldn't do better. Mr. Steil argued that
the "economic arguments" for Canada-U.S. monetary integration are
compelling.
The main impediments, he suggested, are political, not economic.
And that's part of the problem. The United States, and more
specifically, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, has become a reluctant
central bank for the world. Its interest rate decisions affect
borrowing costs and investment yields everywhere.
As long as the United States acts responsibly, keeping inflation low
and steady, the rest of the world will be okay.
But if you suspect Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is drinking and driving
at the wheel of the global economy, you might want to stock up on some
gold.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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