CONTINUOUS - SEE ARTICLES AT www.helium.com  relating to "Single Global Curency," "monetary union," "currency", etc.  See endorsed topics at the Single Global Currency Assn. "Partner" page at www.helium.com/partners/sgca

22 June 2010. "Public sees a future full of promise and peril - 41% foresee a Single Global Currency in 40 years" by the Pew Research Center.

  According to the Pew Research Centers recent poll, most Americans (51%) do not expect the adoption of a single global currency in the next 40 years. However, 41% DO expect such a Single Global Currency, and that's good news. One goal for the Campaign for a Single Global Currency is simply to persuade the people of the world that a Single Global Currency is feasible.  After that hurdle is crossed, the easy-to-understand benefits will speak for themselves.

28 February 2010.  "Head of IMF proposes new reserve currency"  by Harry Dunphy, Associated Press in the News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington.  See same article at the New York Times

The article begins....

WASHINGTON –

  Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday that the organization one day might be called upon to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.

  "That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization.

Strauss-Kahn said such an asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major currencies.

  He said having other alternatives to the dollar "would limit the extent to which the international monetary system as a whole depends on the policies and conditions of a single, albeit dominant, country."

[For the full text of his remarks to the Bretton Woods Committee on 26 February 2010, see "An IMF for the 21st Century"]

16 November 2009.  "EU States Emerge from the Shelter of a Common Currency" by Peter Wilson in The Australian (13 October)

Excerpts from the article....

   " [Milton] Friedman was adamant Europe's common currency could never survive something like the global economic trauma of the past two years.
   "When the global economy hits a real bump," he warned, "Europe's internal contradictions will tear (the euro) apart."
The biggest bump in 60 years came not too long after Friedman's death in 2006 and it has not even dented the euro's standing on the continent, instead leaving policymakers and economists across Europe wondering what would have become of countries such as Ireland and Greece if they had still been relying on the Irish punt and the Greek drachma.
The governments in Athens and Dublin concede they would have been in dire shape without the common currency."

3 November 2009. E-Commerce Times published interview by Ted di Stefano with Morrison Bonpasse, "Folding the US Into a Single Global Currency"

An excerpt from the interview:

di Stefano: "What should replace the U.S. dollar?"
Bonpasse: "Very simply, a single global currency, managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union, should succeed the dollar. Such a currency should incorporate the U.S. dollar and not just push it aside, as the dollar did to the UK pound in the 20th century. The model for the dollar's future incorporation into a monetary union was the role of the Deutschmark in the formation of the European Monetary Union.
   We do not need yet another global currency, whether reserve or not. What we need is a global monetary system which will provide monetary stability, and that stability cannot be achieved in a multicurrency system. By definition, in a multicurrency system there are unpredictable currency fluctuations and risky global imbalances."

21 September 2009.  Chinese bestselling novel includes Single Global Currency by 2024. 

The Reuters article, China bestseller sees plots and profit in financial crisis , by Chris Buckley,  begins....

  BEIJING (Reuters) - A disaster worse than the financial crisis will engulf the world, predicts China's latest financial bestseller, and its author is preparing to profit from the turmoil. But that profit will not be in U.S. dollars.

  In "Currency Wars 2", Song Hongbing claims a shadowy global elite will introduce a single world currency around 2024, tossing the dollar into the dustbin, condemned by loose-spending Washington policies and the waning dominance of the West....

14 September 2009. UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) calls for new global currency.  See UNCTAD 2009 Trade and Development Report

The Bloomberg article by Jonathan Tirone begins...

  The dollar's role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said.

  UN countries should agree on the creation of a global reserve bank to issue the currency and to monitor the national exchange rates of its members, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report.

6 September 2009.  In the Bloomberg article "Stiglitz Says U.S. Economic Recovery May Not Be ‘Sustainable’ ", Michael McKee wrote:

  Stiglitz, who is a member of a United Nations commission that will study the global financial system and currency regimes, said “the logic is compelling” for a new global currency.

  The current system creates instability, weakens global confidence, and is fundamentally unfair to developing countries that are in essence lending the U.S. trillions of dollars and bearing the risk, he said.

  “In most quarters, there is a feeling we should move away from the dollar system. The question is do we do it in an orderly way, or a chaotic way,” Stiglitz said. “The size of the deficit and the size of the balance sheet of the Fed have just increased the anxiety and the desire that something be done.”

  While some think it would hurt the U.S. to no longer be able to borrow cheaply in dollars, “that era is over,” he said. “We're moving to a more multi-polar world.”

10 July 2009. "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pulls new world currency from his pocket" in the Telegraph, UK. 

The article begins...

  Russia's President, Dmitry Medvedev, pulled the world's new currency from his pocket at the meeting of G8 leaders in the Italian city of Aquila.

  Mr Medvedev, who has been seeking ways to displace the dollar as the world's dominant reserve currency, produced a sample coin of what he described as a 'united future world currency'."Here it is," Mr Medvedev said, according to Bloomberg. "You can see it and touch it." The coin, which was minted in Belgium, was presented to all the G8 leaders attending the summit and bears the words 'unity in diversity.'

[The coin was produced by the United Future World Currency organization.  See the enlarged image.]

1 July 2009.  Kimberly Amadeo reviews The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World (2009 Edition) in www.about.com:US Economy

Excerpts from the review:

  "A clearly-written and thorough overview of all issues related to foreign exchange, history of money, and the need for a single global currency.
Pros
  Provides a detailed argument for a global currency.
Describes clearly how the foreign exchange market works.
Recounts the history of money and foreign exchange.
Well documented with many helpful reference resources.
Easy to read.
Cons
  At 500 pages, is probably intimidating to many readers.
Biased towards a single global currency.
Guide Review - Book Review
  This is a thorough explanation of the history of the multicurrency system and the costs of maintaining a multiple exchange rate system. First on the list are currency speculators, who impact the value of money for their own personal profit. Second are the costs of currency transactions, for businesses, governments and individuals, especially travelers. It is well-researched and provides useful resources for additional reading. This book also covers the current conversation by economists around the single global currency debate.
  It is, however, biased. Readers who are looking for a thorough discussion of why a single global currency should not be instituted will need to look elsewhere."

30 June 2009. Laurence Brahm column in South China Morning Post, "Fellow Bric road" mentions Single Global Currency Assn.

Excerpt from the column....

"While it may be premature to adopt a gloal currency, as suggested by some economists such as Joseph Stiglitz, the idea does seem to have some momentum.  'The Bric countries can lead the world toward global monetary stability by supporting the researching and planning for the next global currency to replace the US dollar,' said Morrison Bonpasse, president of the Single Global Currency Association, a US think tank. Mr. Bonpasse believes that 'when such a single global currency supports a number of countries with 40-50 percent of the world's GDP, the 'tipping point' will have been reached and other countries will join quickly' ."

12 June 2009. "Let us roll out the euro to the whole Union" by Marcin Piatkowski and Krzysztof Rybinski in the Financial Times.

Excerpts from the column...

   "The big bang eurozone expansion would not complicate monetary management in the eurozone, since the combined GDP of all eurozone candidate countries in central and eastern Europe amounts to less than 10 per cent of the eurozone's GDP. Equality of treatment would also be adhered to; after all, many of the original eurozone members have not fully met the entry criteria, in letter or in spirit.

   Expansion would strengthen the eurozone, as new members would provide impetus for reforms such as strengthening fiscal co-ordination, integrating financial markets and creating the world's largest, most liquid bond market. Candidate countries do not just want to enter the eurozone; they want to become part of the most successful global currency area...."

11 June 2009.  "Volcker says US growth possible this year but strong recovery unlikely; 'long slog' in store" by Joe McDonald, AP, in Los Angeles Times.

Excerpt from the article...

   "Volcker expressed support for a global currency, which he called "the ultimate logic of a globalized financial system." China and Russia have called for such a currency to replace the dominant dollar, but Volcker gave no opinion on any individual proposal...."

8 June 2009.  "IMF Says New Reserve Currency to Replace Dollar Is Possible"  by Alexander Nicholson in Bloomberg.

The article begins....

  The International Monetary Fund said it's possible to take the “revolutionary” step of creating a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar over time.

  The IMF's so-called special drawing rights could be used as the basis for a new currency, First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky told a panel discussing reserve currencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today.

  “There are many, many attractions in the long run to such an outcome,” Lipsky told a panel discussing reserve currencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today. “But this is not a quick, short or easy decision,” he said, adding that it would be “quite revolutionary.”

  The SDRs would have to be delinked from other currencies and issued by an international organization with equivalent authority to a central bank in order to become liquid enough to be used as a reserve, he said.

  As much as 70 percent of the world's currency reserves are held in dollars, according to the IMF, leading to calls for nations to diversify their cashpiles to avoid excessive exposure to the U.S. economy as it quadruples its budget deficit in a bid to counter the worst recession since the Great Depression.

16 May 2009.  New Brunswick Business Journal columnist, Colin Dodds, terms the Single Global Currency a "bolder initiative" in article, "Can China Save the World Economy?"

Dodds is the president of St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and he wrote....

  "A bolder initiative is that advanced by the Single Global Currency
Association for a monetary union of the world and a global central bank by  2024. This concept for a single global currency has received a lot of support from eminent economists and readers may wish to check out the Association's website at www.singleglobalcurrency.org.

11 May 2009. Michael Grunwald writes in Time Magazine, "With his dramatic plans to restructure Wall Street and Detroit, overhaul health care and create a clean-energy economy, Obama is certainly taking political risks, even if he hasn't gotten around to replacing the almighty dollar with some new, one-world currency the black-helicopter crowd keeps warning about." [emphasis added here]

Article:  "Republicans in Distress: Is the Party Over?"

[Has the Single Global Currency now become so inevitable that it's a project that President Obama "hasn't gottten around to?"]

6 May 2009. Fox commentator, Sean Hannity, presents idea of Single Global Currency in "Obama Plucking Tree of Liberty Bare"

An excerpt from his statement....

"And their free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea. When China reportedly considered pushing for a single global currency, the president said he opposed it. Only to have his own treasury secretary leave that door open, sending our dollar into a freefall in one afternoon." [emphasis added here]

14 April 2009.  Citizen and Attorney Grayson Brown writes letter  to the Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US: "A possible solution to meltdown":

An excerpt from the letter....

  "World currency accounts must balance out. Thus, if all countries (other than the United States) run a currency account surplus, then the United States, as the country of the reserve currency, must have a deficit of equal amount. There lies the problem.

The Internet bubble of the 1990s and the housing boom of the 2000s allowed the United States to maintain full employment demand in the face of a staggering trade deficit. That trend, unfortunately, is played out. What is the solution? Consideration should be given to transforming the International Monetary Fund into a global central bank (such as the Federal Reserve System is for the United States)." (emphasis added here.)

24 March 2009. "Obama dismisses idea of a Single Global Currency" from Reuters by Lesley Wroughton and David Lawder.

The article begins....

  WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and his top two economic officials on Tuesday dismissed suggestions by emerging economic powers that the world move away from using the dollar as the world's main reserve currency.

"I don't believe that there's a need for a global currency," Obama told a prime-time televised news conference, adding that the dollar is "extraordinarily strong right now".

24 March 2009. CHINA SUPPORTS NEW GLOBAL CURRENCY

Many articles....

New York Times, by David Barboza, "China Urges New Money Reserve to Replace Dollar"

Excerpts...

the head of its central bank has called for the eventual creation of a new international currency reserve to replace the dollar .

In a paper released Monday, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said a new currency reserve system controlled by the International Monetary Fund could prove more stable and economically viable....

Mr. Zhou said the goal of reforming the international monetary system was to "create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run."

[Zhou Xiaochuan's paper is "Reform the International Monetary System"

15 March 2009. "Nobel Prize Winner Backs World Currency"

published in the Melbourne Herald Sun from Agence France - Presse.

The article begins...

  KAZAKH President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won backing for his plan for a single world currency from an intellectual architect of the euro currency, Nobel-prize winner Professor Robert Mundell.

Nazarbayev, speaking at an economic forum in the glitzy new capital he has built on the Kazakh steppe, defended his proposal for the "acmetal'' world currency saying it might "look kind of funny'' but was not.

  And he received intellectual support from the Canadian economist Prof Mundell, who helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Europe's single currency.

  "I must say that I agree with President Nazarbayev on his statement and many of the things he said in his plan, the project he made for the world currency, and I believe I'm right on track with what he's saying,'' Prof Mundell said, adding the idea held "great promise''.

 

13 March 2009.  "Kazakhstan's cure: one currency for all " by Peter Leonard of the Associated Press, as published in the Globe and Mail.

The article begins....

  ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan 's president called Wednesday for the creation of a single global currency as a potential solution for the current financial turmoil.

Discussions on a currency operating under the aegis of the United Nations should be discussed at the upcoming Group of 20 meeting in London , Nursultan Nazarbayev said — without detailing how this proposal might resolve the crisis.

“The creation of a global currency should be put on the agenda of all major political and economic bodies, summits and forums, including the G8 and the G20,” Mr. Nazarbayev said at an international economic forum in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

27 February 2009. "Would a Single Global Currency Have Helped Cool the Meltdown?" in E-Commerce Times by Ted di Stefano, in interview with Morrison Bonpasse.

Di Stefano introduces the interview...

"The financial world is looking for ways rebuild people's trust and confidence in markets, and Morrison Bonpasse sees a future for a single global currency. "The movement of vast amounts of money around the world to avoid currency risk is not productive," he told E-Commerce Times columnist Theodore F. di Stefano."

The article was republished in:

Bizcommunity, South Africa as "Would a Single Global Currency have helped cool the meltdown?"

6 February 2009.  Professor Hossein Askari of George Washington University writes in Asia Times, "Wanted - a world central bank"

Excerpts from the article...

  The only sure way to stabilize the world economy is to create a world central bank and a return to a single reserve currency....

  The single reserve currency would circulate along with other currencies as a mean of payments. The world central bank should have a strict and primary obligation to follow a fixed rule and would not be allowed to adopt discretionary policies. Its role would be only to provide a safe and stable reserve currency, and not the achievement of full employment for the world economy.

26 January 2009. Professor Michael Boskin of Stanford and the Hoover Institution asks the right question, "Why not create a single global currency...?" in his article in the Guatamala Times, "The Euro at Ten" 

The article begins...

  When a group of individual currencies is replaced by a single currency, as the Deutsche mark, French franc, Italian lira, Spanish peseta, and others were by the euro, there are two primary benefits: lower transaction costs and greater transparency.

And then asks the question...

   What, then, of the costs? Why don't all nations join currency areas, or why not create a single global currency, as Nobel laureate Robert Mundell suggests?

[After looking at some costs, and not all the benefits, Prof. Boskin concludes that the world is not yet ready for a Single Global currency - but what about starting the resarch and planning NOW?]

24 January 2009. Jeremy Warner writes in The Independent (UK) that "The only long term solution is a world currency...", in article, "Exchange Rates Reignite Fears of Protectionism"

The column begins...

   Outlook: Exchange rate worries swept back on to the international agenda this week with a leading financier opining that the pound was "finished", various eurozone nations expressing concern over sterling's dramatic devaluation, the new US Treasury Secretary accusing the Chinese of "manipulating" their currency to prevent it appreciating against the dollar, and the Japanese hinting at renewed currency intervention to stop the yen rising any further.

Then, Warner concludes:

   The only long-term solution is a world currency, but given that nations cannot yet agree even on climate change and trade, let alone war and peace, a global currency would seem rather a long way off.

[See COMMENT by the Single Global Currency Assn.]

1 January 2009. "Slovakia becomes 16th country to adopt the euro" from the Associated Press.

The article begins...

   BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovak banks did brisk business as they opened on New Year's Day for a very special occasion — issuing euros to citizens eager to get their hands on the country's new currency.

   The small alpine nation on Thursday became the 16th country to adopt the European Union's euro — a currency that also celebrated its 10th birthday this New Year's Day. With the addition of Slovakia, the euro currency will be used by 330 million people with an annual gross domestic product of more than 4 trillion euros ($5.6 trillion).

   The decision by this country of 5.4 million people to join the eurozone and abandon the Slovak koruna appears even wiser now amid the global financial crisis, as other European countries have seen their currencies severely buffeted....

30 December 2008. Wall Street Journal Editorial "The Euro Decade and its Lessons"

About a Single Global Currency, the Journal said....

  "For Mr. Mundell -- and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker -- the lessons point to the eventual need for a single global currency. That may be a political leap too far. But the world could still harness the benefits of exchange-rate stability if its political and economic leaders began to discuss how better to coordinate monetary policy. Mr. Mundell suggests, for starters, a mechanism for close coordination among the Fed, the ECB, and the Banks of England, China and Japan....

   The decade of the euro has demonstrated that there is an alternative to the instability and volatility of the era of floating exchange rates that began with the collapse of Bretton Woods in 1971. It's time to build on that lesson for the good of free markets and global prosperity."

[To this editorial, the Single Global Currency Assn. added this COMMENT observed, "If 16 countries can use the sme currency, whiy not 192?"]

3 December. "Spur pluralistic monetary system steadily" from the Peoples Daily Online, China.

Excerpts from the article...

  ...As a matter of course, the settlement mechanism with the adjustment of a single world currency cannot be accomplished overnight, but has to be materialized gradually and steadily with an incessant rise in the strength of these new-emerging economics and along with an active support from of the U.S. and other developed nations

3 December. Charles Scaliger in the New American, "Looking Beyond the Global Economic Summit" with critical reference to the Single Global Currency

Excerpts from the article...

  It's a safe bet that all of the parties are in substantial agreement on the need for a global central bank, a new global currency beholden to no one national government or central bank, and a global financial regulatory body or bodies.  

  The most radical proposal likely to emerge at future summits - once the public worldwide, and especially in the United States, has been sufficiently conditioned - is a new global currency, possibly only for use in international transactions, at least at first. A single world currency  was a major unmet goal at Bretton Woods, with the dollar becoming the  global money standard instead.

1 December 2008. "Several Countries are Rethinking the Euro"   by Carter Dougherty in the New York Times.

Excerpts from the article...

  COPENHAGEN: The deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression has prompted countries that had snubbed the euro to take a fresh look at the virtues of the common European currency....

  At its core, the convulsions in financial markets encompass a "flight to quality," the term investors use to describe a sudden shift of money out of potentially risky assets into the safest possible assets, one of which has been the euro, and investments denominated in euros.

  This dynamic has played out quickly...."

[There was no mention of the how a Single Global Currency will SOLVE this problem, permanently.]

20 November 2008. Katherine Austin Fitts writes of the G20 conference at Solari.com. Statement From G-20 Summit: In English

She wrote, inter alia:

"We will continue the move toward one world government and one world currency."

In response, Morrison Bonpasse of the Single Global currency Assn., wrote,

"As one part of the solution to the current and longstanding global financial instability, the world is moving to a Single Global Currency, managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union. Ms. Fitts may disagree with that trend, but the world will be better and less risky for it."

30 October 2008. Iain Macwhirter supports new currency options in  "Europe's Looming Crisis"the New Statesman.

Macwhirter wrote, " Ultimately, what is needed is an international central bank with the resources to provide liquidity guarantees, recapitalise banks and regulate international financial flows. This is an immense task, and the world may not yet be ready for it. But it is not a new idea: John Maynard Keynes argued for precisely this during the Bretton Woods negotiations in 1944. He even suggested a world reserve currency 'bancor'. This is the kind of thinking we need today."

25 October 2008.  Jeffrey Garten of the Yale School of Management, calls for Global Central Bank in article in Newsweek, "We Need a Bank of the World"

He wrote, " In the future, a global central bank is needed to oversee the rudderless global financial system....

A new institution could have influence over key exchange rates, and might lead a new monetary conference to realign the dollar and the yuan, for example, for one of its first missions would be to deal with the great financial imbalances that hang like a sword over the world economy."

8 October 2008. "Calls grow for a new model for global trade"  in the Boston Globe, by Robert Weisman.

Excerpt from the article...

  "It also could mark the start of an effort to overhaul the global financial system conceived at the 1944 summit in Bretton Woods, N.H., which set the rules of international commerce for industrial countries.

   That model, developed in an era of slower communications and simpler financial transactions, has proved inadequate to govern today's rapid flow of capital across borders. The World Bank's president, Robert Zoellick, this week called for a "new multilateralism."

   "We're going to have to build new international financial institutions," said Joseph L. Bower, a professor at Harvard Business School. "Bretton Woods was relatively primitive. We live in a world where trillions of dollars are moved around the globe daily. No one at Bretton Woods imagined that."....

26 August 2008. "Nobel Laureate Mundell Predicts Dollar to Reach $1.30 Per Euro" by Simon Kennedy at Bloomberg.

Excerpts from the article....

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Nobel economics laureate Robert Mundell predicted the dollar will climb to about $1.30 per euro in the next year as the U.S. economy rebounds....

   In a presentation to a conference of Nobel winners and young researchers, Mundell today said the dollar's long-term trend remains down as U.S. indebtedness grows and more dollars are held abroad. The U.S. currency's next decline will push it below this year's record low, he said.

  As the dollar falls, it may eventually be replaced as the world's chief currency, paving the way toward a single global currency, he said.

   "The dollar era will last until the U.S. is replaced by the next superpower,'' he said, noting China's economy could surpass the U.S. in size by 2030. "My hope, if not my expectation, is that the beginnings of a new international monetary system could be made at the time of the World Fair in Shanghai in 2010.''

25 August 2008. The International Economy publishes its Spring 2008 issue, "The Dollar Issue," with the significant article, "The Next Great Global Currency"

   The article presented the responses of 55+ prominent political people and economists to the question: "Ten years from now, what will be the next great global currency?"

   Most predicted the dollar, and some the euro and even a few the yuan. However, the most accurate two respondents were:

  HANNES ANDROSCH, Former Austrian Finance Minister and Head of Creditanstalt-Bankverein, who said, "I suspect questions about currency blocs or lead currencies will naturally resolve into the emergence of a world currency."

  ALLEN SINAI, Chief Global Economist and President, Decision Economics, said, "Markets will first identify those currencies and commodities most favored that will be part of the 'next great global currency,' not a single currency such as the dollar has been, but a basket reflecting the new and emerging realities of global economic wealth and power. A defined currency bloc would follow."

23 August 2008.  "One World, One Money,"  by Carl Teichrib at the website for "Forcing Change", a monthly intelligence journal and a division of Globalization International in Manitoba, Canada.

  Teichrib reviewed the progress toward a Single Global Currency, including the work of the Single Global Currency Assn., and shares his concern of excessive concentrated power in a Global Central Bank. 

20 August 2008.  "Slovak mint starts production of euro coins"   by Lucia Kubosova in Eu Observer.

The article begins.....

    Slovakia's mint has started manufacturing euro coins as the country prepares to join the 15-strong monetary union on 1 January 2009.

    Some 500 million coins weighing 2,406 tonnes began to be produced at a speed of 750 coins per minute at the Mint in Kremnica on Tuesday (19 August) in a run to last till the end of the year, the state company's spokesman, Jaroslav Setnicky, told reporters....

19 August 2008. In The New Nation, "The dollar's reign coming to an end." by Chandra Muzaffar. 

Excerpts from the article....

     One of the most significant trends in the global economy in recent years has been the decline of the US dollar. It is a trend that has far reaching consequences for all the inhabitants of this planet....

   Shouldn't we start working now - even if it takes a few decades - towards a common world currency which is not linked to any particular nation or region that can be used for international trade? Why shouldn't we let our imagination run ahead of reality at a time like this?  [emphasis added here.]

17 August 2008.  "Southern African countries launch free trade zone" from the AFP, online.

Excerpts from the article....

   Southern African countries launched a regional trade zone at a summit on Sunday that aims to eliminate import tariffs, with plans for a common currency by 2018.

   Eleven of the 14 countries that are part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will participate in the free trade area...

   The free trade area precedes a customs union planned by 2010, a common market by 2015, monetary union by 2016, and a single currency by 2018.

11 August 2008.   In Interview in Broker Deal Journal, Former Federal Reserve Chair, Alan Grenspan, stated his view of the Single Global Currency.

  He was asked, “Do you believe we will go to one global currency in five decades?” and Mr. Greenspan responded, “No, I doubt it.”

   In response, SGCA President Morrison Bonpasse an online "Comment"   that began,"His answer, “No, I doubt it," is most certainly wrong. He joins the ranks of national economists who doubted the euro would be established and then doubted that it would succeed. Rather than settling for doubt, he could help advance the cause of worldwide monetary stability by urging that research and planning be initiated for the Single Global Currency. For starters, there should be a comprehensive study of the Costs and Benefits of a Single Global Currency."

21 June 2008.  "An Economist Who Matters - The weekend interview: with Robert Mundell" by Kyle Wingfield in the Wall Street Journal.

Excerpts from the article....

   ...As for the euro's overvalued status, he forecasts deflation in Europe, along with a slowdown and an end to its housing boom. The answer, he suggests, is for the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to cooperate in putting a floor and a ceiling on both the euro and the dollar. "You have to grope" to the appropriate range, he maintains, but a good starting point would be to keep the euro between 90 cents and $1.30.

   Even better, in his mind - and now we're really talking long term - would be to have a global currency. This could take the form of a new money or a dominant existing one to which all others are fixed - probably the dollar. "As Paul Volcker says," Mr. Mundell relates, "the global economy needs a global currency."

   To get there, he proposes holding a new, Bretton Woods-type meeting in 2010 at the Shanghai World's Fair. Mr. Mundell, who has been spending "a lot of time" in China advising the government, says reviving an international system of fixed exchange rates would be a tremendous help to Beijing as it tries to fend off demands from U.S. and European politicians that it appreciate or float its currency. ...

      Another part of his solution is for Asian countries to form their own currency bloc. If they did so, he says, "it'd be comparable in size to the European and the American bloc. And then it would not be so much the question of . . . the U.S. and Europe bashing China" or other rising economies.

   These three currency blocs, he predicts, would be large enough to weather wide swings in their exchange rates. But the swings would still do economic damage, so "the best thing you could do is to stabilize them, and that's where the global currency comes in."

    Could it happen? Mr. Mundell allows that three decades may pass, but predicts that like the euro and the Reagan revolution before it, the global currency's time, too, will come. Any skeptics might want to review the last few decades before betting against him.

   18 June 2008. "Experts embrace a currency union" from AME, about the GCC 08 Conference, with presentation by Single Global Currency Assn.

Excerpts from the article...

   In a joint presentation, Mr. Russell Krueger, on leave from the International Monetary Fund, and Mr. Erwin Nierop, Senior Official from the European Central Bank, focused on the efforts in many regions to create currency unions. They spoke about how the economies of the countries joining the union could be affected, the legal framework, and the process of changeover.

   'An impressive line up of speakers at the GCC Currency Forum 08 raised expert debate about the economic and banking developments required to converge the currencies' said, Allard Marx, Managing Director INCIDE, the consulting firm that registered a world currency sign in 2002. He emphasised on the implementation and acceptance of such a major change and to show how the process could be helped by visualising an outcome ahead of time.

(See also, "Latest News" "Latest news" on this website.)

17 June 2008. "Despite Irish Vote, the Euro Remains Strong"  by Mark Landler in the New York Times

Excerpts from the article...

   But the angst has not spilled into the currency markets, where the euro — perhaps the most tangible symbol of European unity — rose against the dollar Monday, the first full day of trading since the results of the Irish vote were announced.

   That is a marked change from three years ago, when the rejection of a proposed European constitution by France and the Netherlands deeply rattled the euro. At that time, some experts questioned whether the currency could survive without a more unified Europe.

  Few people are saying that today, a testimony not only to the resilience of the euro but also to a widening belief that the European monetary union can function without an accompanying political union.

   “Any poll in Ireland would show massive support for the euro, but not for political integration,” said Philip R. Lane, professor of international macroeconomics at Trinity College in Dublin. “The question is, do you need political integration for a functioning monetary union?”

  The answer, for the most part, is no, said Professor Lane, adding that “monetary policy is essentially a technical exercise, when delegated to an independent central bank.”

 

10 June 2008.  "Time Overdue for a World Curency" by Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene in Asia Times. 

  Excerpts from this groundbreaking article...

   A world central bank is becoming a necessity in a global economy. Such an independent central bank, not subject to the political whims of a particular government, would be more likely to apply orthodox and safe central banking. Contrary to any country's central bank, a world central bank would have no obligation to accommodate budgetary deficits, war spending, domestic wage and price rigidities, speculative asset bubbles, or rescue ailing domestic banks. Its law should be as meticulously applied as any constitutional law of a Western democracy....
    The world currency note will circulate along with national currencies, serve as a reserve asset, and become part of the international payments system.
By becoming a full-fledged reserve asset, a world currency would cushion the real value of international reserves against inflationary policies of reserve currency centers and wide fluctuations in exchange rates....

 

3 June 2008. "Dollar crisis looms, China ponders reform-Mundell"  by Jason Webb, Reuters.

Excerpt from the article....

 

1 June 2008. Ezine article by Hans Bool, "Towards a Single Global Currency?"

  The article begins...

  Some initiatives or ideas count on direct acceptance. Then the problem is: how do we do it, is the project feasible? Other ideas might be feasible but count on resistance from the day they get announced. To me, a single global currency would fall in the second category.

   I was just imagining how the financial crises would evolve when there was only one global currency and one central bank. It could have been better, but it also could have been worse.

   In my opinion a single global currency is both not feasible nor desirable.
[Hans Bool gets credit for at least thinking about the idea of a Single Global Currency even if his conclusions are short sighted.]

26 May 2008.  "South America eyes common currency"  from Thomson Financial News at Forbes online.

The article begins....

    BRASILIA (Thomson Financial) - South America is thinking of creating a common currency and a central bank along the lines of those in the European Union's euro-zone, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday.

The idea is a logical next step following the signing last Friday of a teaty creating a Union of South American States that aims to promote joint regional customs and defense policies, Lula said during his weekly radio broadcast.

8 May 2008.  "Slovakia gets the go-ahead to adopt the euro" by Carter Dougherty, International Herald Tribune.

The article begins....

   The European Commission on Wednesday approved the application of Slovakia to adopt the euro as its currency on Jan. 1, 2009, completing a fast and furious transformation that brought the small country from dictatorship to thriving market economy in less than a decade.

   Slovakia will become the 16th country using the euro.

8 April 2008.  Harvard Professor and former IMF Chief Economist Kenneth Rogoff writes article in the Lebanon Daily Star, "Has the moment come to replace the U.S. dollar?"

Excerpts from the article...

   Of course, if the dollar were to fall off its perch as the world's dominant currency any time soon, the euro would be the only serious alternative. The yuan may well supplant the dollar in the second half of this century....
    As central bankers and finance ministers ponder how to intervene to prop up the dollar, they should also start thinking about what to do when the time comes to pull the plug.

 

3 April 2008."The Fed's Revolution" Article in BusinessWeek by Peter Coy and Michael Mandel contains Paul Volcker comment re: Single Global Currency.

Excerpt from the article......

   The possibility that a primarily domestic crisis could quickly become global highlights the need for international cooperation. Former Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker, who broke the back of high inflation in the early 1980s, told BusinessWeek on Mar. 19: "If you have a closely integrated world economy with free trade and free movements of capital, the logical complement of that is a global currency."

21 March 2008.  See COMMENTING ARTICLES (PRO AND CON) at www.helium.com on Barry marcus's article below (17 March 2008).

17 March 2008. E-Article by Barry Marcus at Helium.com "Could a single global currency work?"

The article begins...

  "A single global currency has a few advantages over the current system of 190 separate currencies in circulation in the world. The first of these is that it would eliminate huge volumes of global currency trading and the considerable costs associated with this. Currency speculation which has at times resulted in quite spectacular currency fluctuations would become a thing of the past. Of course it follows that currency fluctuations would end. It can also be expected to bring about greater stability to world trading conditions.... "

[See Barry Marcus's blog for more articles and thoughts about currency and the Single Global Currency.]

25 January 2008.  In "The Dollar's Decline: An Expert Speaks Out" Ted di Stefano interviews Morrison Bonpasse in E-Commerce Times.

The interview begins with two questions....

Ted di Stefano: Why do you and others support the creation of a single global currency?

Morrison Bonpasse: Briefly, it will save the world the equivalent of trillions of dollars and greatly reduce the risks to the international economy currently posed by the existing multi-currency system.

di Stefano: How would it save the world trillions of dollars?

Bonpasse: The most straightforward savings would come from the elimination of foreign exchange trading. Currently, the equivalent of US$4.2 trillion per working day is traded. This costs the world approximately $400 billion per year. Other savings would come from the elimination of the need to maintain low-return foreign exchange reserves....

December 2007. Cover Story in Global Finance:  "Universal Currency Could Hold Key To Stability And Growth" by Gordon Platt.

The article begins....

He concluded....

    "To conclude, the euro area has indeed come a long way. The success of the single currency has demonstrated that one size can fit all. Such has been the success of the euro area that it has given rise to considerations, still at an early stage, of regional currency arrangements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done to ensure that the euro area becomes a more dynamic force for growth in the global economy on a sustainable basis. It is my view that the experience of the euro area to date only serves to highlight the fact that a currency union requires more flexibility in factor and product markets, and greater competition than do independent monetary areas. Flexible markets and strict fiscal rules are not just superfluous conditions for members of a monetary union. They are necessities that make monetary union work by providing the adjustment mechanisms that the one size fits all monetary policy cannot." [emphasis added here]

9 November 2007.  Canadian party advocates common currency with U.S.  from Reuters.

The article begins....

   OTTAWA, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A political party that advocates the separation of Quebec from Canada pushed on Wednesday for a union of the two North American dollars as a way of easing the pressure on exporters from the surging Canadian currency.

   Paul Crete, the lead finance spokesman for the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which elects members to Canada's Parliament only from Quebec, said the manufacturing and forestry sectors were already struggling with an economic crisis and did not need big swings in the Canadian-U.S. exchange rate to add to their woes.

   "Adoption of a common currency would make the life of our exporters a lot easier," he said.

   Morrison Bonpasse of the Single Global Currency Assn. attempted to post the comment below on the version of the story appearing on Canada YAHOO!

    Instead of monetary union with the U.S., Canada would do more for itself and the world by supporting a Single Global Currency, managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union. (See www.singleglobalcurrency.org)

    The implementation of a Single Global Currency will save the world approximately $400 billion in foreign exchange transaction costs, and will eliminate currency crises and balance of payment problems and eliminate all currency fluctuations.

It's Common Cents.

19 September 2007. According to Poll, "Majority of Poles Want Euro"  from www.thenews.pl.

The entire article...

   The latest opinion poll conducted by GfK Polonia shows that 59 per cent of Poles are for the replacement of the Polish currency – the zloty - with the Euro and 27 per cent are against.

   Seven per cent had no opinion on Poland's accession to the Euro Zone.

   More than half of respondents (51 per cent) believe that Euro should be introduced within 4-5 years.

  Poles can see the following positive consequences of the introduction of the common currency: easier travel within the Euro Zone (58 per cent), closer association with Europe (28 per cent) and an increase in the number of foreign investments in Poland (27 per cent).

   Poles are mainly afraid of an increase in prices in the initial stage (61 per cent), deterioration of families' welfare (47 per cent) and difficulties in getting used to the new currency (46 per cent).

   But there was indication that Poles have more to learn about the single currency.

   Twenty two per cent do not know what institution is in charge of monetary policy in the Euro Zone and 43 per cent do not know how many states have adopted the common currency.

   The opinion poll was conducted among a sample of one thousand respondents above 15 years of age across Poland.

10 September 2007.  Ratnam Alagiah, member of the SGCA Board of Directors, writes REVIEW of The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World, in the Australian journal, JAMAR, Vol. 5 Number 1, Winter 2007, p. 69.  JAMAR is the Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research.

Excerpts from the review...

   "... a refreshing approach to the problem in accounting [of fluctuating international currency values] is the introduction of a common currency across the globe.  Clearly, the solution lies in not inventing yet other methods in accounting for inflation but to change the very basis of the measurement of transactions. That is, to change the currency.  With the implementation of a common currency across the globe, all companies in all countries will use the same currency, and therefore the same measure in recording transactions, based on the same accounting standards...

   I recommend the book to all accountants, and challenge accountants to help implement what is the next generation of accounting."

11 August 2007. "Europe Offers Strong Case for Single N. American Currency" by J. Collin Dodds, Halifax News

The article begins....

  The concept of a single currency for North America has reared its head again. There is no doubt that a single currency would be more efficient for Canada , as we have close trade and investment relationships with the U.S.

  Those engaged in the movement of goods, services and capital cross border would not have to worry as they do now about the short- and long-term volatility of the currencies and the costs of hedging the currency exposure. As we know from recent experience, the Canadian dollar can move sharply on a day-to-day basis and over time, the movement can be very significant, particularly against the U.S. dollar.

27 July 2007. IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato speech: "Capital Flows in an Interconnected World"

He said in his paragraph #5:

   Of course, financial globalization also has risks, for investors and for the countries in which they invest. Over the last few months I have on several occasions cautioned about some of these risks: stemming from global imbalances and from increased protectionist sentiment; from carry trades across various currencies; and from the lack of information about the exposure of financial institutions, including hedge funds, in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market. My aim in drawing attention to these risks is not to predict disruption in global financial markets, but to forestall it. By taking timely action, governments and regulatory authorities in industrial countries can protect their investors and markets. And countries which are the recipients of large capital inflows can protect their economies from the consequences of market disruptions.

[What he didn't say in his presentation is that the best long term way to avoid many international risks is to move to a Single Global Currency managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union. See email to Mr. de Rato  from the Single Global Currency Assn. Sergio Cardenas, of the Public Affairs Division of the IMF responded on 6 August 2007.  "Dear Mr. Bonpasse,

Thank you for your recent e-mail to Rodrigo de Rato. It has been circulated to the offices of the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Directors, and also to the Monetary and Capital Markets (MCM) and Policy Development and Review (PDR) Departments.

Best regards, Sergio.]

 

21 July 2007. Ted di Stefano writes "A Single Global Currency" in E-Commerce Times.

Excerpts from the Article...

   Of course, no one can predict if or when a worldwide currency consolidation will happen. Presently, we are seeing gathering strength in currency zones such as the dollar, euro and yen. There certainly is consolidation going on because it makes international trade a lot more efficient and seamless.

   My best guess is that we'll see more consolidation of currencies, but I wouldn't dare guess when or if we'll see a single global currency. I'll leave that to the mavens like Mr. Morrison Bonpasse. Even if his goal of a single world currency by the year 2024 is optimistic, the prospective benefits warrant further research and planning now, rather than later.

[Ted di Stefano is a member of the Board of Directors of the Single Global Currency Assn, which he fully disclosed in his column.]

19 July 2007. "Mirror of the Boom" Editorial from the New York Sun.

Beginning and ending paragraphs...

    These columns are ever ready to raise a cheer at the milestones of American prosperity. New highs in the Dow or in the Manhattan real-estate market are, to us, markers of the progress of the age. Quibbles, we leave to others — though, there is one thing. The yardstick by which these triumphs are measured is getting shorter. The dollar is setting 15-year lows in the world's currency markets....

      So while we glory in the soaring New York real estate market and the Dow nipping over 14,000 on intra-day trading, let us not forget the mirror image — the shrinking Bush dollar.

[In response, the Single Global Currency Assn wrote a letter "The Single Global Currency - The long term solution to currency fluctuations"  The letter begins, " The long term solution to many of the world's financial problems and risks is to implement a Single Global Currency, within a Global Monetary Union where there will be no such currency fluctuations and no current account imbalances and no currency crises...."]

11 July 2007.  National Public Radio (U.S.) interviews Benn Steil for segment, "Is a World Currency Realistic?" (audio file)

The NPR summary:

Morning Edition, July 11, 2007 · In a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine, economist Benn Steil says most national currencies should be eliminated because they end up being manipulated by politicians, and do more economic harm than good.

The interview begins...

[See SGCA Comment which was sent to NPR through its website utility.  Also, the remainder of the 787 word transcript can be purchased from NPR.]

10 July 2007. "Cyprus, Malta to join euro"  By AOIFE WHITE in Business Week.

Excerpts from the article...

   The European Union gave Cyprus and Malta final approval Tuesday to start using the euro next year, taking to 15 the number of nations sharing the currency.

   Diplomats said finance ministers had voted to allow the two tiny Mediterranean nations to join the currency zone on Jan. 1. They were also to set the exchange rate for the Cypriot pound and Maltese lira as the two currencies are swapped for the euro, but details were not immediately available.

   Cyprus and Malta will bring just over 1 million people to the 318 million who now use the euro. Their economies account for only 0.2 percent of euro-zone gross domestic product.

   Cyprus and Malta worked hard to meet the strict EU economic standards for euro nations, with Cypriot workers agreeing to calm wage demands that could hike inflation while Malta paid off debt to cut its budget deficit below the EU maximum of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

   Both entered the European Union in May 2004. Only one other country that joined the EU at the same time -- Slovenia -- has so far adopted the euro.

   The largest of the EU newcomers -- Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria -- have yet to set a date. Estonia had originally planned to join next year but will delay membership as its growing economy sees inflation surge, a problem that has also slowed Latvian and Lithuanian plans. Slovakia is scheduled to join in 2009.

   To keep their shared currency stable, euro nations are also supposed to keep overall public debt below 60 percent.

2 July 2007. Former U.S. Presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson, urges common currency for Africa.  from "A US of Africa must exert moral authority: Jesse Jackson" at www.rawstory.com.

Excerpts from the article...

   A United States of Africa which is being debated by the continent's leaders must exert moral authority and address the problems on its doorstep, former US presidential hopeful, Jesse Jackson, said Monday....

   Jackson also called on Africa to consider the creation of a common currency as part of any moves to forge closer unity which could carry weight outside the continent.

   "They need a common currency. With the exception of the (South African) rand, no African currency has value in the north," he said.

29 June 2007. "IMF managing director De Rato to step down in October" by Peter Kasperowicz, from AFX News, in Forbes.

Excerpts from the article...

   WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato will not serve the full length of his term, and will resign in October, he said in a statement today....

   De Rato oversaw a change in IMF policy on currency monitoring that was announced last week, although many critics in the US said he was not aggressive enough in policing undervalued currencies.

[Hopefully, the new Managing Director will want to focus on the long term strategy for the IMF, including the Single Global Currency.]

27 June 2007. Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the IMF, "Expanding world economy is risky business"  in the Globe and Mail on 20 June.

Excerpts from the Op-Ed....

   The world economy is set to grow again for a historic sixth year, spurred on in no small measure by financial markets and cross-border movements of capital in recent years. But recently risks have been on the rise, particularly in financial markets...

   One of our central objectives at the International Monetary Fund is to promote international financial stability. Working with other international bodies, the organization plays a key role in international discussions on these issues, and is deepening its work on them....

   As financial globalization grows deeper, so do the risks that turbulence in one country's markets might spill over to others. The IMF is focusing increasingly on mitigating these risks. At the same time, it is also helping to integrate developments in financial markets and the financial sector into economic analysis, with the aim of reducing the frequency and severity of financial crises....

[Mr. de Rato's concern about international financial risk is well-placed, but he has said nothing about a long term plan to reduce that risk - with a Single Global Currency.]

25 June 2007. "Time for a single Caribbean dollar"  by Sir Ronald Sanders in the Jamaica Observer.

Excerpts from the column...

    Serious attention has to be given to the creation of a single currency by the countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) that earlier this year signed an agreement to establish a single market...

    A monetary union and a single currency in the countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) would be a boon to commercial operations in the region from the smallest trader to the largest corporation.
    It would also be a delight to multi-destination tourists and to the ordinary Caricom citizen travelling from one country to another.

Caricom countries need look no further than within their seven smaller member states, the countries that comprise the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), to witness some of the benefits of a currency union and single currency.
    In the OECS countries, cross-border investment has increased; the currency is the strongest in the region, transaction costs for business is less than they are with other Caricom countries, and the people of the area are able to travel without the burden of having to change their money...

21 June 2007. Bloomberg Columnist, Mark Gilbert, writes of hypothetical move to Single Global Currency, "Granddad, Did You Believe in Central Banks Once?: "

After world financial crises, the boy asked his Granddad ...

   "I've been meaning to ask you, Granddad; what are all those funny little rectangles of green paper in that big frame on the wall next to your desk?''

   "They're called dollars,'' Granddad said.  "We used them to buy things in the olden days. In 2015, a group called the Single Global Currency Association convinced the Bank for International Settlements, which by then was running the world's financial systems, that everyone should switch to one type of money.''

   "And they didn't choose the dollar, Granddad?''

   "No, Joel. There was a global referendum to make the decision on which currency people wanted. Which is why we now use the yuan all around the world. Anyway, it's getting late. Back to your Mandarin homework, young Master Bernanke.''

19 June 2007. "Rwanda, Burundi sign East African Community deal" by Tim Cocks, Reuters, Africa

The article begins...

   KAMPALA (Reuters) - Rwanda and Burundi officially joined the East African Community (EAC) on Monday, signing accession treaties that will expand the regional economic bloc to five nations and boost trade.

   Officials said their entry into the EAC, alongside Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, would be effective from July 1.

   "I would like to welcome the two new members of the East African Community. We hope to make this combination of five countries a big success," said Kenya's president and outgoing EAC chairman Mwai Kibaki at the signing ceremony.

   Rwanda and Burundi hope to benefit from an EAC customs union, which began setting common external tariffs for goods entering the region in January 2005.

   The move would also allow the tiny central African neighbours to join a planned political federation, including a common market for the region's combined population of 110 million, a monetary union and a common president and parliament by 2010....

13 June 2007. Indian political party has long supported Single Global Currency. (Now is supports new global calendar, too: See "Uniform global calendar : Dravida Peravai supports uniform global calendar" in Asian Tribune.

   Dravida Peravai's party manifesto registered with Election Commission of India advocates single global currency to end the supremacy of dollar.People laughed at it when it was mooted in an article by Nandhivarman in an English weekly New Times Observer in the year 1994.

   Europe started with different currencies but today with single currency Euro, Europe has reached a common market, whereas in India we started with single currency namely rupee but we have not become one common market, lamented India's former Finance Minister Yaswant Sinha in a personal meeting with him.

   Euro had challenged the might of the dollar regime and the day for single global currency to end economics of speculation is not far off. The next logical step would be to begin with single Asian currency....

 

13 June 2007.  New British Petroleum (BP) Chair mentions "Single Global Currency" in article, "BP chief backs carbon trading"

    In an article about a global carbon emissions market, Mr. Tony Hayward said, "Nobody can doubt that financial markets are now global and that there is a global market in equities, commodities, futures, options, foreign exchange and bonds. Yet all these markets started off in individual countries, sometimes just in small localities, and grew up without the need for a single global currency" he said.

[However, he was partially wrong.  Even if it is true that finanical globalization is ongoing, there still IS a need for a single global currency. It would make thje world financally safer and more prosperous.]

1 June 2007. "71% of Maltese feel informed about euro"  from Maltamedia news.

   The article begins....

   71% of citizens  feel they are "rather well" or "very well-informed" about Malta's changeover to the euro currency. The result emerged from a Eurobarometer survey on the introduction of the euro in the new European Union states.  

   In the last similar survey held by the European Commission, only 38% felt they were rather well or very well-informed about the currency. The Maltese's increase in self-perceived euro-related knowledge is believed to have come about through the campaign tied to the introduction of the common currency. 

   However, the self-reported level of information does not necessarily coincide with actual levels of knowledge. Although 71% of Maltese said they  were well informed about the euro only a minority at 28%, was able to correctly say how many countries there are in the eurozone . This indicates that citizens appear to be less interested in the global aspects of the European Monetary Union (EMU), though they seem to be content if they are well informed about the changeover scenario.    

   The survey also found that 98% of Maltese believed the country would adopt the euro currency by 2008....  

  

1 June 2007.  Support for Single Global Currency from Investors Daily Edge by Dr. Russell McDougal.

   "Sooner or later, I believe we will see a global currency, likely a conglomerate of the dollar, euro, and Asian currencies. It may or may not be backed by anything of substance. Central banks no longer hold silver and their gold holdings are beyond suspect. Power is typically consolidated out of chaos."

31 May 2007.  MSNBC "How the little guy can score playing currencies - Foreign-exchange trading is risky; consider trying a mutual fund" by Jeff Brown.

The article begins...

   Vacation in Europe this summer and you'll be shocked at what things cost. Today a dollar is worth about 0.74 euros, down sharply from about 1 euro four years ago. The fall has virtually unbroken since early 2006. In fact, the dollar has been losing value against many major currencies since early in the decade.

   Most experts blame the U.S. trade and budget deficits, which cause Americans to send dollars overseas, increasing the amount of money in circulation that drives down the price.

   The rate at which one currency is exchanged for another is governed by supply and demand in the 24/7 global currency markets, where an estimated $3 trillion changes hands every day through forwards, futures, spot trades and other transactions....

[emphasis added here.]

22 May 2007.  "Dodge says single currency 'possible' "  by Barrie McKenna in the Globe and Mail. 

The article begins...

   WASHINGTON -- Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge says North America could one day embrace a euro-style single currency.

But to get there, Canada, the United States and Mexico must first tear down barriers to the free flow of labour, which he pointed out yesterday have "gotten a bit thicker" in recent years.

Answering questions from the audience after a speech in Chicago, Mr. Dodge said a single currency was "possible."

The idea of a common currency has long been a subject of curiosity, particularly among Canadian academics, who see it as a way to escape sharp gyrations in the exchange rate....

16 May  2007. from the Christian Science Monitor:  "Many Countries - One Currency  For kids: It's common 'cents' – these countries share the same currency."   by Wendy Watson.

The article in "kidspace" begins...

   Have any Euros in your pocket – coins, that is? If you have traveled recently to Europe, to any of the 13 member countries of the European Union or a few smaller states that have adopted the currency, perhaps you do. The countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.

   All these nations except Slovenia, which adopted the euro earlier this year, have used the euro as their currency for about five years. It was introduced into circulation Jan. 1, 2002. Instead of all countries having their own coins and bank notes, as they used to, they now share a common currency.

9 May 2007. "Goodbye U.S. dollar, hello global currency"  by Jerome R. Corsi in WordNetDaily.

The article, mostly about Benn Stei's article in Foreign Affairs, begins...

   The director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations has launched a scathing attack on sovereignty and national currencies.

    Benn Steil, writing in the current issue of CFR's influential Foreign Affairs magazine, says "the world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn."

3 May 2007.  "Split Over Fees Hampers Move To Modernize Currency Trade" by Katie Martin in the Wall Street Journal.

The article begins...

   LONDON -- The foreign-exchange market is still suffering from data overload after the board of currency-settlement network CLS Bank International couldn't agree on how to change its fee structure if it moves to consolidate users' trades.
The New York-based firm, which acts as the plumbing behind the $2.5 trillion-a-day global currency markets, has come under pressure from ...
[Thus the WSJ has seconded the $2.5 trillion estimate for daily foreign exchange trading as was published in 2006 in The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World.]

29 April 2007. "The End of National Currency"  by Benn Steil in Foreign Affairs magazine, April/May 2007.

Summary [from FA magazine]:  Global financial instability has sparked a surge in "monetary nationalism" -- the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn. [emphasis added on this website.]

Other excerpts...

     Governments must let go of the fatal notion that nationhood requires them to make and control the money used in their territory. National currencies and global markets simply do not mix; together they make a deadly brew of currency crises and geopolitical tension and create ready pretexts for damaging protectionism. In order to globalize safely, countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability...

    Since economic development outside the process of globalization is no longer possible, countries should abandon monetary nationalism. Governments should replace national currencies with the dollar or the euro or, in the case of Asia, collaborate to produce a new multinational currency over a comparably large and economically diversified area.

[See 17 July 2007 letter to Foreign Affairs from SGCA members, John Edmunds and John Marthinsen which states that the vast increase in European and worldwide asset values is a major reason to encourage currency unification.]

  

24 April 2007.  "UNESCO Ambassador welcomes common currency proposal "  in the Sri Lanka Daily News.

   COLOMBO: Madanjeet Singh, UNESCO's Goodwill Ambassador and founder of the South Asia Foundation has welcomed President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposal to establish a common currency for South Asia.

   In a letter to President Rajapaksa, Ambassador Madanjeet Singh has congratulated him for his proposal for a common currency for South Asia made at the recently concluded 14th SARRC Summit held in New Delhi.

   Ambassador Singh's letter states the Governing Council of the South Asia Foundation is happy at this proposal, because at their annual general meeting at UNESCO House, Paris, held recently, “they too had recommended a common currency called the ‘Sasia', with a hope that it will become the anchor of economic stability and regional cooperation like the Euro.

23 April 2007  Public Opinion Poll in New Zealand and Australia: "Your Views: Should we have an Anzac dollar?"  from the New Zealand Herald

The article begins.... (and two reader comments are included)..

   A new poll says half of New Zealanders want a common transtasman currency.

   The UMR poll reveals 49 per cent of New Zealanders favour a shared dollar, against 41 per cent of Australians.

This forum debate has now closed. Here is a selection of your views on the topic....

   Sergio Rodriguez de Lima Souza
    Ultimately there is no need for separate currencies: one single global currency would do nicely, with prices set by demand for products and services. On the way to get there, neighbouring countries should team up and combine currencies. For practical reasons, we should also include the Pacific islands in the Australian dollar zone. Later on, we would need an Asian dollar, which would have all of South-East Asia and our region covered. And so forth...

Ray Eyre
    I am not in favor of a trans Tasman currency. I am however in favor of a global currency. It is so simple to go Global. All the world leaders need to do is introduce a global currency valued on the American dollar. Give each Yank a dollar for dollar swap. Give the Aussies a swap at a rate that depicts the dollars value, Give the Kiwis a swap at a rate that depicts our dollars value. Do the same to the rest of the world. Say a American earned $1000 a week, the Aussie would earn $805.41, The Kiwi would earn $661.71. Each country would be able to purchase goods at a global dollar value from any other country. Where is the problem in going global? There is no problem, the answer is so simple.

22 April 2007 10-member Economic Cooperation Organization in Asia, "ECO Central Banks Network (ECBN) soon launched: Governor SBP " from International News Network

The article begins...

   Karachi: Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Shamshad Akhtar has announced to set up an ECO Central Banks Network (ECBN) aiming at promoting banking in Asian countries and enhancing mutual interests in member states of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

   She said this while addressing the first meeting of the heads of Central Banks of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Member States here on Monday.

   Dr. Shamshad said that the bank would star working from June 2007 with the name of ECO Trade Bank.

   This network would focus on exchange of experiences and information on economic and monetary policy, greater cross border cooperation on Anti-money laundering and explore opportunities for harmonization of standards and systems, where feasible.

   She said that Pakistan, Iran and Turkey had approved the establishment of Trading Bank, while initiative work on the project would be started very soon.

   Governor SBP stressed the need for setting up a Monetary Union of Asian countries in line with European Union for economical progress in the region.

[The member countries are: Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan. See ECO website at http://www.ecosecretariat.org]

22 April 2007 Nigerian President "Obasanjo calls for common currency in Africa"  in Vanguard Online.

The article begins...

   President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for the introduction of a common currency in Africa to enhance trade relations in the continent. Speaking while inaugurating the Enugu branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) today in Enugu State, Obasanjo said this had become necessary in order to eliminate trade barriers created by the absence of a common currency.

15 April 2007. Sri Lankan Headline: "G7 mulls global currency, hedge funds, amidst Wolfowitz scandal"  from Lanka Business Online.

[The headline was inaccurate, but some day, the G7 or G8 or G-whatever WILL, in fact, contemplate a Single Global Currency, and the sooner the better.]

8 April 2007 "One World Currency and Why It Matters"  from Mark Warner's Blog.

   Many world economists see a time in the not so distant future when National Currencies are merged into one or a few. It makes sense considering the massive electronic flows of the money. Of course some nations are very concerned with this as no one wants to be on the losing end of the stick and get trapped with mass devaluation or hyper inflation after the switch-over.

   When talking about One World Currency or the move closer towards that there are many things to consider indeed. Sure that makes sense eventually to have only a few or one currency in the long-term. For instance; maybe an Asian Dollar, Euro w/Australia/Japan/England joining in, US Dollar used throughout Western Hemisphere, Middle East-African Dollar. Then merge either Asian Currency with Euro or US with Asia, then when you have 3 merge them to one. Have supercomputers monitor the flow of money to insure stability?

   This would be the best for humanity in the long run, although there are issues with a Global Currency Collapse in that case right? An "Earth Unit" or "Dollar" would make long-term sense. Earth Unit might even be better and more stable for an Earth Citizen, it also crosses cultural divides of what types of things people value. What are your thoughts on One-World Currency?

   These are very tricky discussions when it comes to a nation's currency, as everyone wants control. However, with World Trade things are moving faster and closer together and the debt on the currency needs to be set to the flow of the currency and not specifically to the nation borrowing the money.

   Otherwise we will have continuous mini-economic collapses of emerging nations and currency crashes of first world nations. That does not serve the people or the bankers and certainly adds to the changes of civilization collapse. In reality no one wishes to discuss this, but in the future something must be done to shore up the risks being created in the present period, abstractly thinking of course."

30 March 2007. "Cypriots oppose Cyprus entry to EMU by 51%"  in the Financial Mirror, Cyprus. 

The article begins....

   Less than a year before Cyprus' entry to the EU' Economic Monetary Union (EMU), Cypriots oppose by 51% to the adoption of the Euro, the EU's single currency, according to ''Cyprusbarometre 2006'' survey, carried out by RAI Consultants on behalf of the Laiki Group.
    According to the survey Cypriots oppose by 51% the accession of Cyprus to the EMU, recording an increase of 10% compared to 41% of the 2005 Cyprusbarometre.
    Furthermore, as Cyprus is getting closer to the date of accession to the EMU on January 1 2008 Cyprus, Cypriots disagree with the EU single currency. In 2002 Cypriots were opposing the Euro only by 25%, whereas this figure rose steadily to 27% in 2003, 45% in 2004, 49% in 2005 and 54% in 2006.
    The Cypriots believe that Cyprus' entry the EU will have negative effects to the unemployment rate and inflation with 79%, followed by the competitiveness of the economy with 67%, financing cost with 60%, the fiscal deficit with 57% and tourism with 27%.

30 March 2007.  Book about North American Monetary Union on Short List for $35,000 Donner Prize in Canada.  "Ninth annual Donner Prize shortlist announced "  

Excerpts from the press release....

    TORONTO, March 29 /CNW/ - The finalists for the 2006/2007 Donner Prize, the award for best book on Canadian public policy, were announced today by Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation. Mr. Gotlieb said, "Last year, the Toronto Star wrote 'Donner-winning books tend to have far-reaching influence on government and industry.' This year's first-rate group of finalists all tackle key issues that we hope will have policy makers taking notice."...

   Many believe that Canada's deepening economic integration with the United States and the worldwide trend towards currency blocs will eventually lead to a North American monetary union. In this excellent analysis of Canadian exchange rate politics,[Towards North American Monetary Union? The Politics and History of Canada's Exchange Rate Regime] Eric Helleiner challenges this view and finds little support in the U.S. for the concessions that would be necessary to make a North American monetary union palatable in Canada. Towards North American Monetary Union? is a fascinating book that explores Canada's unusually strong commitment throughout the twentieth century to a floating exchange rate for its national currency - a commitment that Heilleiner argues is likely to endure. Eric Helleiner is CIGI Chair in International Governance in the Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo.

(In April 2007, it was announced that the book won the Donner Prize. See "2006/2007 Donner Prize winner announced")

28 March 2007.  "Reign of the Dollar" by Prof. William Silber in the New York Sun.

Excerpts from the article...

  Is the dollar about to lose its dominance as the international currency to the euro?

  Not any time soon, despite the dollar's vulnerability.

Today the euro lacks the credibility to unseat the dollar.

America's record of free capital markets, the rule of law, and the maintenance of price stability strengthens the dollar's role as the unparalleled safe haven currency.

    In response, Morrison Bonpasse wrote the following comment: "We should begin planning for a Single Global Currency"

   Instead of a continuing struggle to see which national or regional currency is THE preeminent international currency, the world should begin planning for a Single Global Currency. The euro is now used by 13 countries in the largest, most successful monetary union in history, and the number will soon grow to 22. Why not develop a monetary union for the 192 members of the United Nations and eliminate the need for foreign exchange reserves, eliminate the problem of imbalances of payments, eliminate the annual $400 billion in foreign exchange transaction costs, and eliminate the risk of currency crises? The goal of the Single Global Currency Assn. is a Single Global Currency, managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union by 2024, the 80th anniversary of the 1944 Bretton Woods Monetary Conference. See www.singleglobalcurrency.org. We should begin planning now.

27 March 2007. Martin Wolf writes in the Financial Times: " The pain in Spain will follow years of rapid economic gain"

Excerpts from the article....

    Do current account deficits matter inside a monetary union? The answers are “no” and “yes”: no, because there cannot be a currency crisis; and yes, because there cannot be a currency crisis. Where unsustainable divergences in competitiveness emerge, adjustment occurs largely through changes in relative nominal costs, particularly of labour. The bigger the required adjustment, the greater the pain....

    For Spain, better times for the eurozone presage a much bigger challenge to itself. Adjustment to a different and more sustainable path will be required. A decade or so from today we should have a far better idea than today of how far one of Europe's hitherto most successful economies is able to thrive within the straitjacket of the currency union.

25 March 2007. "Reverse Foreign Aid" by Tina Rosenberg, New York Times Magazine.

Excepts from the article...

   For the last 10 years, people in China have been sending me money. I also get money from countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa — really, from every poor country. I'm not the only one who's so lucky. Everyone in a wealthy nation has become the beneficiary of the generous subsidies that poorer countries bestow upon rich ones. Here in the United States, this welfare program in reverse allows our government to spend wildly without runaway inflation, keeps many American businesses afloat and even provides medical care in parts of the country where doctors are scarce....

   Increasing the transfer of capital from rich nations to poorer ones is often listed as one justification for economic globalization.

   Historically, the global balance sheet has favored poor countries. But with the advent of globalized markets, capital began to move in the other direction, and the South now exports capital to the North, at a skyrocketing rate. According to the United Nations , in 2006 the net transfer of capital from poorer countries to rich ones was $784 billion, up from $229 billion in 2002. (In 1997, the balance was even.) Even the poorest countries, like those in sub-Saharan Africa, are now money exporters.

   How did this great reversal take place? Why did globalization begin to redistribute wealth upward? The answer, in large part, has to do with global finance. All countries hold hard-currency reserves to cover their foreign debts or to use in case of a natural or a financial disaster. For the past 50 years, rich countries have steadily held reserves equivalent to about three months' worth of their total imports. As money circulates more and more quickly in a globalized economy, however, many countries have felt the need to add to their reserves, mainly to head off investor panic, which can strike even well-managed economies. Since 1990, the world's nonrich nations have increased their reserves, on average, from around three months' worth of imports to more than eight months' worth — or the equivalent of about 30 percent of their G.D.P. China and other countries maintain those reserves mainly in the form of supersecure U.S. Treasury bills; whenever they buy T-bills, they are in effect lending the United States money. This allows the U.S. to keep interest rates low and Washington to run up huge deficits with no apparent penalty.

   But the cost to poorer countries is very high. The benefit of T-bills, of course, is that they are virtually risk-free and thus help assure investors and achieve stability. But the problem is that T-bills earn low returns. All the money spent on T-bills — a very substantial sum — could be earning far better returns invested elsewhere, or could be used to pay teachers and build highways at home, activities that bring returns of a different type. Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, estimates conservatively that maintaining reserves in excess of the three-month standard costs poor countries 1 percent of their economies annually — some $110 billion every year. Joseph Stiglitz, the Columbia University economist, says he thinks the real cost could be double that.

   In his recent book, “Making Globalization Work,” Stiglitz proposes a solution. Adapting an old idea of John Maynard Keynes, he proposes a sort of insurance pool that would provide hard currency to countries going through times of crisis. Money actually changes hands only if a country needs the reserve, and the recipient must repay what it has used.

[A better answer is the Single Global Currency, which would eliminate entirely the need for foreign exchange reserves, and also remove the incentive to move money from high currency risk countries to lower currency risk countries. See SGCA Letter to the Editor in response.]

23 March 2007.  Letter to the Editor, Portland (ME) Press Herald: "Global trade needs common cents"

23 March 2007.  Mark Leonard predicts euro as global currency.

   Mark Leonard is the author of "Why Europe will Run the 21st Century." He recently commented on an International Herald Tribune article, "Quotes on Poll," about a European Union 50th Anniversary poll, that

   "This poll should cheer them up. It shows that Europe's citizens expect the EU to repeat its trick of peaceful regime change in the East through enlargement -- creating a eurosphere that covers a quarter of the globe. They think Europe could help save the planet by freeing itself from fossil fuels. And the euro could become a global currency. Instead of creating presidents and constitutions, EU citizens expect the EU to become a transformative power on the world stage."

23 March 2007. Indian Prime Minister: "Time not ripe for common Asian currency"  from the Times of India.

The article begins....

    NEW DELHI: India on Friday said a common currency for Asian countries, similar to the Euro for European nations, was still a few years away and would require more coordinated efforts on part of all the participants.

  "I do not believe that time has arrived for the common ASEAN currency like Euro," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at an event here.

  A common Asian currency would require more coordinated efforts and may become a reality in near future, he said.

  Apart from ASEAN members, the Asian Development Bank has also considered a plan to create a regional currency unit --before introducing an actual currency -- that could bring down exchange rate volatility among member countries and give a momentum for the regional bond market.

  Despite its potential benefits to ASEAN members and Japan, China, South Korea as well as countries like India, the idea of common Asian currency has not made much progress due to various technical and political obstacles.

  Singh pointed that common Asian currency would require coordinated efforts and removal of various obstacles.
[The good news is that the highest leaders of Asia are considering the issue.]

16 March 2007. "A customs union among Islamic countries? What good news"  by Prof. MUSTAFA ACAR  in Today's Zaman, Istanbul.

Excerpts from the Op-Ed....

   An interesting item about some prospective economic cooperation projects among Islamic countries appeared in the press a few days ago.

   "OIC member states took a first step towards a ‘customs union'” (Zaman, March 12, 2007): The piece reported that the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was preparing to initiate a "preferential trade” regime among its member states from Jan. 1, 2009. One step further down the road was customs union and even a “common market.”

   Common market, which adds free movement of production factors -- labor in particular -- across member states on top of the customs union. Monetary union implies adoption of a common currency by the member states in addition to the common market. Finally economic union means adoption of common fiscal, monetary, financial and commercial policies and common rules of competition within the region.

11 March 2007  "Global Economic Cooperation or Bust"  by By Jose Antonio Ocampo, United Nations Under Secretary General, and Rob Vos, Director Development Policy and Analysis Division of the U.N. Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs.

Excerpts from the article:

   According to estimates by the United Nations, the global economy expanded by 3.8% last year, continuing the strong performance recorded since 2003. Led by China and India, developing countries were prominent among the best performing economies, expanding by 6.5% on average in 2006. But can this apparently benign pattern of global growth be sustained, particularly since growth has been accompanied by ever-widening global financial imbalances?

   To be credible as a mediator of this mechanism, the IMF itself would need reform, including a substantial change of voting power to bring the influence of developing countries in line with the weight they carry nowadays in the global economy. Modest steps in that direction were taken during the IMF meetings in Singapore last September.

   Such a new platform should also be used to work towards structural reform of the international monetary system aimed at reducing its excessive reliance on the US dollar as a reserve currency. Such reforms should work towards developing a multilaterally agreed multi-currency reserve system or even, in the longer term, a world currency based on the Special Drawing Rights issued by the IMF.

   The mere possibility of an imminent hard landing for the dollar – and with it, for the US and world economy – should be alarming enough to mobilize concerted action. Coordination will surely deliver more satisfactory outcomes than what any one country can achieve on its own.

6 March 2007 "Dollars to Spare in China's Trove"  by Keith Bradsher in the New York Times.

Excerpts from the article...

   HONG KONG, March 3 — In the insular world of China's central bank they are known as the Three Xiaos, three women with similar names who oversee the greatest fortune ever assembled: China's more than $1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves....

   Public pressure is mounting on the central bank, the People's Bank of China. In postings on Internet message boards in China and in conversations among educated urban Chinese, critics suggest that the central bank should earn higher profits from its vast hoard — for instance, by taking more risk and investing in stocks — and use some of it to help a nation where most workers still earn less than a tenth of the wages of the typical American.

[The Single Global Currency Assn. hopes that such thinking will soon extend to asking why the world isn't doing more with the approximately $3 trillion in reserves worldwide - which will be freed for other uses when the world moves to a Single Global Currency.]

 

15 February 2007.  "FIRMS VOTE IN FAVOUR OF COMMON AUSTRALASIAN CURRENCY" on New Zealand radio.

The entire segment...

  A new survey from international business advisory firm Grant Thornton has found a clear majority of local firms believe the time has come to have a common currency with Australia.

   It says 60% of the 150 respondents were positive about the idea of a merged currency, while 38% were against.

   Among those who favoured the common currency idea, most thought this should happen by 2010, but 23% thought it should go ahead even earlier.

   Grant Thornton spokesman Peter Sherwin believes these findings will give impetus towards more commonality in the trans-Tasman business world. He says a common currency could ease a lot of transactions and aid trade in favour of New Zealand exporters.

12 January 2007. "EAC for One currency by 2009"  by Emmanuel Kola/kna, Kenya Broadcasting System

  East African Community (EAC) Minister John Koech says the Community will have one currency in three years time. 

  Koech says the EAC Committee on Fiscal and Monetary Affairs is working on a roadmap to have one currency for East Africa by December 2009. 

  Koech says East African states have agreed on methods to integrate the three economies to pave way for a sustainable monetary union.

  Consequently, Koech says the EAC Secretariat has commissioned a comprehensive study on the EAC common market.

  He said discussions and consultations on the EAC common market have been launched and a task force has been formed in partner states to start negotiations. 

    The Minister says the common market will enable the free movement of people, labour and services. 

    The EAC customs union protocol was signed on March 2nd, 2004 and launched on January 1st 2005 . 

    According to the treaty for the establishment of the EAC, the roadmap towards a full integration begins with a customs union, a common market, a monetary union and ultimately a political federation. 

 

23 December 2006.  "Cyprus plans to apply to join EU monetary union next Spring"  from the Peoples' Daily, online.

The article begins...

    Cyprus plans to apply to join the EU's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) next February or March, a key step to join the eurozone in 2008, Cyprus News Agency reported on Friday.

Cypriot Finance Minister Michalakis Sarris was quoted as saying that the country will state the reasons which show that it is ready to join the eurozone in its application for EMU.

   The application will be assessed by competent organs in the European Commission by next June, and then submitted to the European Council for ratification.

20 December 2006.  "Mechanism To Safeguard Stability Of East Asian Currencies" by  Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah  at the Malaysian National News Agency, www.bernama.com.

The article begins...

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 (Bernama) -- Central banks in Asia should set up a mechanism for consultations on exchange rate policy so as to safeguard the stability of their currencies, according to a think tank.

   The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), in making the suggestion, said that such a move could also start the ball rolling on the possibility of a common currency.

   Its executive director Professor Emeritus Dr Mohamed Ariff Abdul Kareem said a coordinated exchange rate policy could minimize instability among East Asian currencies.

   "For example, if one country wants to buy US dollar, all the East Asian countries must go with that decision," he told Bernama in an interview.

   Mohamed Ariff said there was a need to institutionalise the process of consultations for all East Asian countries, a move which could lead to the possibility of having a common currency.

   "The Asian currency is a very interesting proposal. It is not new and we have been talking about it for years. I think it is a very bold move but East Asia is not ready for it yet," he said.

6 December 2006. "Single currency not in ASEAN Summit agenda" the People's Daily

    Single currency would not be a topic at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit meetings, an official said on Wednesday in Cebu.

   "Monetary integration is not on the table," Philippine Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Louie Cruz told a press conference at the Cebu International Convention Center, one of the major meeting venues for the 12th ASEAN Summit.

    Instead, the ASEAN leaders would likely discuss more extensively ways and means to boost regional economies through the free trade zones scheme, according to Cruz, who added that the agenda of the leaders meeting include social-cultural, anti- terrorism, and economic concerns.

   "There would be economic agreements to support previous agreements on the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement or AFTA", he said.

    Ambassador Victorino Lecaros, spokesman of the Summit, also said it is impossible at this time for the ASEAN member states to adopt a common currency system as there are several concerns derived from political and economic diversity that must be addressed before the ambitious proposal could take off.

    The idea of a single currency for the ASEAN was first raised during the Hanoi Action Plan in 1997 when the region was reeling from a financial crisis.

    Established in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

4 December 2006.  "Push for common Anzac currency" by Tim Dick, Sydney Morning Herald.

Excerpts from the article...

Australia and New Zealand should work towards a full union, or at least have a single currency and more common markets, an Australian federal parliamentary committee says.

  It wants a closer relationship between the six Australasian colonies that formed the Commonwealth in 1901, and the errant one that chose to go it alone.

   The committee chairman, the Liberal Peter Slipper, said the world had changed since then.

   Other MPs on the committee include Malcolm Turnbull, Nicola Roxon and Daryl Melham. Their report said: "While Australia and New Zealand are of course two sovereign nations, it seems to the committee that the strong ties between the two countries - the economic, cultural, migration, defence, governmental and people-to-people linkages - suggest that an even closer relationship, including the possibility of union, is both desirable and realistic."

   It wants a joint committee between the two parliaments to report on the possibility of union....

   The committee also said a common currency should be "actively" pursued, despite the Treasurer, Peter Costello, and his New Zealand counterpart, Michael Cullen, saying last year that it was not on the agenda.

   Mr Costello does not want to get rid of the Australian dollar, and Dr Cullen does not want to adopt it, but the New Zealand Government looks more kindly on a common Anzac currency.

3 December 2006. "The tourist and the euro" in the Malta Independent, by Josephine Rizzo, Information officer of the National Euro Changeover Committee.

Excerpts from the article...

   With the adoption of the euro, targeted for 1 January 2008, Malta will be joining a monetary zone of more than 300 million inhabitants that represents the leading tourism destination in the world.

  Economic and monetary union has enhanced competition in the eurozone, provided greater price transparency, stimulated cheaper cross-border payments and eliminated foreign exchange risks. These factors have contributed to the reduction of the costs of travelling in the single currency area...

    The euro will facilitate the life of tourists visiting our islands, as it will make travelling easier. Malta will certainly attract more visitors from the eurozone because exchange rate costs will be eliminated. Once the euro becomes our official currency, tourists will no longer be burdened with foreign exchange transactions and costs, and the divergences between buying and selling rates.

  The cost and complexity of dealing with a different currency on arrival at our shores will cease to exist. It will be an absolute pleasure for tourists arriving from the eurozone to know that they can use the money in their pockets and that they do not have to queue in banks to change their money to the local currency. It is also worth noting that tourists' cash can lose up to two-thirds of its value without making a single purchase, simply through currency transactions.

  Consequently, tourists arriving in Malta from the euro area will have more money in their pockets due to the savings related to currency exchange transactions and costs. It is therefore up to the individual to decide how to spend that extra cash – be it in the form of choosing more expensive accommodation, or opting for a longer stay, or just simply spending more money while on holiday.

   In actual fact, the euro will facilitate more spending, since a high percentage of our visitors already use the euro in their home country and they will therefore be familiar with the retail value of our goods and services. This means that it will be much easier for tourists from the eurozone to compare prices in Malta with prices either in their home country or in other euro area countries.

  With the introduction of euro notes and coins in Malta, visitors from the eurozone will immediately benefit from the simplifications resulting from the adoption of the single currency. When European tourists travel to another European country, they obviously prefer to deal in euro rather than in a foreign currency. As from January 2008 they will indeed find it very convenient to pay in euro when they visit our islands.

3 December 2006. "Euro booklet to be distributed to all secondary schoolchildren"  in the Times of Malta - showing what can be done to prepare a population for currrency changeover.

Excerpts from the article...

   In addition to avoiding "Fair Trade" foolishness, the U.S. must avoid "Currency Foolishness" by reducing its twin deficits in Federal spending and international trade. As Mr. Samuelson notes, our U.S. dollar is a keystone of international trade, but that status is slipping, and our deficits are greasing the slippery slope.
    The U.S. should initiate, or join, research and planning efforts for a new Single Global Currency to be managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union.
    Such a Single Global Currency would eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign exchange transaction costs, eliminate the need for expensive foreign exchange reserves, eliminate the problem of imbalances of payments for every country and eliminate the risk of currency crises.
    As the world moves inexorably toward a Single Global Currency through the expansion and creation of regional monetary unions, the question will be whether the road to a Global Monetary Union will be smooth, with planning and research, or rough with crises and collapses.
    Paraphrasing Mr. Samuelson, we must decide whether to hold onto the ephemeral symbolism of the formerly mighty dollar or embrace the benefits of a future and stable Single Global Currency.

30 November 2006.  "Almunia speech on euro changeover in Cyprus"  from the Financial Mirror, Cyprus

Excerpts from the speech by EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia at the "EMU Governance and Euro Changeover" Conference

in Nicosia...

   As Cyprus draws closer to its target date [1 Jan 2008?] for joining the euro-area, this conference provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on the broad range of issues that require consideration ahead of euro adoption...

   This assessment reflects notable progress in the area of public finances. The budget deficit has been reduced by four points from 6.3 percent of GDP in 2003 to 2.3 percent of GDP in 2005, and the government debt has been brought onto a declining trend. As a result, last July the Council decided to abrogate the Excessive Deficit Procedure. More good news came at the beginning of this month, when the Commission forecast for the current year a further reduction of the deficit to just below 2 percent of GDP and a further decrease of the debt. This indicates that Cyprus is on the right budgetary track, although the long-term sustainability of public finances remains a source of concern.

   This economic assessment indicates that Cyprus is well on its way to meeting the Maastricht convergence criteria. Nevertheless, as I have stressed on many previous occasions, countries entering the euro area require strong budgetary policies and structural reforms that produce well functioning markets. Since national monetary and exchange rate policies will no longer be available to euro-area members, candidate countries must ensure sustainable convergence in order to maintain competitiveness once in EMU. Cyprus will be no exception to this rule....

[See also, the Associated Press article in the Houston Chronicle article about this speech and the 1 January 2008 target date for Cyprus and the current perception by most Cypriots that the euro will not be good for them: "EU Official: Cyprus on Track on Euro"]

30 November 2006. On the implementation of the euro in Hungary, by the head of the Hungarian National Bank "Jarai: convergence program will lead Hungary down the wrong euro path"  by Duncan Welch in the Budapest Sun.

Excerpts from the article...

   ACCORDING to Zsigmond Jarai, chairman of the National Bank of Hungary (MNB), the government's current convergence program will not result in euro accession.

   Speaking last Wednesday (Nov 22), Jarai, whose mandate as MNB chairman expires in March, told a business conference focusing on inflation, growth and balance, that in the past, "Hungary was expecting the introduction of the euro in 2007, then in 2008 and in 2010, but there is currently no date that can be projected," based on the government's current program.

   According to a poll by news agency Reuters, 30 analysts earmarked 2014 as the earliest date Hungary could join the euro, using the latest projected data for all of the 10 new EU members and accession countries Bulgaria and Romania....

[See the Reuters article, below, at 24 November 2006.]

28 November 2006.  "ECB's Liebscher says euro referenda out of question"  by Boris Groendahl and Stella Dawson, Reuters, in The Times of Malta.

Excerpts from the article...

  A Polish referendum on whether to join the European Union's single currency is not an option as there is no "opting out" of the euro, European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaus Liebscher said.

   Mr Liebscher said in an interview he was disappointed by the dwindling reformist zeal of new eastern member states of the 25-nation bloc, saying they had been closer to joining the euro two years ago than they are now...

   Mr Liebscher said the new member states knew what they signed up to when they entered the union - a duty to join the euro and to work towards meeting the Maastricht criteria for entering it: low inflation, a stable currency, a budget deficit of less than three per cent and debt of less than 60 per cent of GDP....

28 November 2006.  Letter to the editor of the Nottingham Evening Post(England) by U.K. Single Global Currency Chapter Chair Collis Gretton:

27 November 2006.  "Euro introduction to help solve Cyprus problem?"  in the Financial Mirror, Cyprus

Excerpts from the article...

   The introduction of the euro in Cyprus , planned to become legal tender from January 2008 provided Cyprus meets the economic criteria by June/July 2007 should not be seen as an important economic and financial event, but also as a possible solution that may help in efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.

   “The euro adoption is not a pure financial event, but it may also help efforts to solve the national problem, as both sides will have one common currency, the euro, which by itself will solve so many other problems,” said Papadopoulou.

   Experts generally agree with this assessment.

   Finance Minister Michalis Sarris told a conference on reunification efforts that the euro could be a unifying factor. “If we see what we are able to do right now, imagine what we could do under reunification if we are sensible,” he said.

   Dr George Kyriacou, Assistant Manager of the Department of Economic Research at the Central Bank, said joining the eurozone was expected to have an overall positive impact on the economy of Cyprus , but would also contribute to the improvement of the general climate.

   “In general, the existence of the euro contributes to the building and fostering of a European identity. By adopting the euro, Cyprus becomes a n integral and dynamic part of Europe and participates more actively in the process of European integration. This is for the benefit of not only Greek Cypriots, but also Turkish Cypriots, who also have European-oriented aspirations,” he said.

25 November 2006. European Commission issues report on the Euro. See "Articles - non-academic": The Reuters article: "EU calls for euro zone reforms, tighter budgets" and the Report itself: The EU Economy 2006 Review

Excerpts from the Reuters article...

   BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Countries using the euro currency should accelerate structural reforms and consolidate public finances to make the single currency area work better, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

   In a report on the 12-nation euro zone, the European Union executive also called for deeper integration of financial markets and warned politicians not to use the euro as a scapegoat for national economic problems....

   Action is needed. The adjustment in the euro area has been slower than we would like and we cannot ignore this fact. We need to promote more structural reforms," EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told a news conference....

24 November 2006. Survey of financial experts:  "Romania, Bulgaria to beat Hungary on euro track"   from Reuters on the Hungarian "Portfolio" website.

excerpts and a table...

   Reuters surveyed the analysts for their views on when the 10 countries which joined the European Union in 2004, and also Bulgaria and Romania, are likely to adopt the euro and when the EU will admit new members.

  The poll, taken Nov 20-24, also asked what euro parity rates analysts expect the currencies of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania to adopt in joining ERM-2, and their views on EU entry for Serbia and Turkey.

   In what year do you expect the following countries to enter Europe's monetary union (i.e. formally adopt the euro)?

 

24 November 2006 "Gulf states on track for single currency despite recent concerns"  from Reuters, in the Boston Globe.

Excerpts from the article...

   DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Gulf Arab states are on course to create a single currency in the world's top oil exporting region by 2010, despite concerns raised last week by at least one participant....

   A Saudi newspaper said the Gulf Cooperation Council planned to urge Gulf leaders at a December summit to stick to the 2010 deadline.

   The six countries have compelling reasons to press on with integration and are more closely linked in many ways than the states of the euro zone, said Richard Fox, a senior director, sovereign group at Fitch Ratings.

   "At the end of the day they are all pretty close to a common currency because they are all linked to the dollar. It makes more sense for the GCC to do this than the EU," he said.

22 November 2006.  "Keynes v Friedman: the clash of economic titans ends in draw" by Martin Wolf in the Australian News   (FT Business)

On the occasion of the death of Milton Friedman...

   JOHN Maynard Keynes, who died in 1946, and Milton Friedman, who died last week, were the most influential economists of the 20th century.

   Since Friedman spent much of his intellectual energy attacking the legacy of Keynes, it is natural to consider them opposites. Their differences were, indeed, profound. But so was what they shared. More interesting, neither won and neither lost: today's policy orthodoxies are a synthesis of their two approaches....

    The vagaries of floating exchange rates seem to cry out for yet another experiment in monetary integration, perhaps even a stab at a world currency. The march of technology may even make money redundant as anything more than a unit of account.

 

16 November 2006 Letter to the editor of the Leicester Mercury (U.K.) by U.K. Single Global Currency Chapter Chair Collis Gretton:

 

16 November 2006  "Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-Winning Economist, Dies"  by Vivian Lou Chen, Bloomberg

The beginning paragraph and the excerpt of the article relating to the European Monetary union, which he opposed....

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate economist who shaped the philosophies of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and successive Federal Reserve chairmen, died of heart failure today, his daughter Janet said. He was 94...

   He opposed one form of economic integration: the monetary union of 11 European Union nations in 1999 that resulted in the replacement of national currencies with the euro. Greece joined in 2001, bringing the number to 12.

   As Europe was preparing for the euro's introduction, Friedman told German weekly Die Zeit in September 1997 that the euro would make conflict more, not less, likely.

   The continent's many borders and diverse cultures make a single currency unit unfeasible, as Europeans are more dependent on their own country rather than the "common market" or the idea of "Europe.'' The introduction of the euro would turn economic shocks into political conflict, Friedman said.

   The euro went ahead as planned and the introduction of notes and coins two years later went off without a hitch....

16 November 2006  "Asian currency unit still a dream" Opinion by Sun Dongsheng in the Peoples Daily.

The piece, though skeptical, begins...

   It was recently reported that the Asian Development Bank would formulate a conceptual currency unit based on a package of Asian currencies in order to promote regional economic cooperation and development. This drew a series of reports on an "Asian Yuan".

    The idea of an Asian Yuan, to be used throughout the region, was first proposed by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1997 at the ASEAN summit. In 2003, the "Father of the Euro", Nobel Prize in Economics laureate, Robert Mundell, also proposed establishing a common currency in Asia, such as an "Asian Yuan". In 2005, at the Bo'ao Asian Forum Annual Meeting in Hainan province, Hong Kong SAR then acting chief, Donald Tsang, spoke of an "Asian Yuan". However, dreams do not take the place of reality. An Asian Yuan looks to remain a dream for the foreseeable future. Why?...

15 November 2006  European Union considers altering criteria for EMU accession.

Excerpts from the European Union Press Release "Improving the performance of the euro area" ...

   On the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union, Parliament agrees that disparities in growth and inflation rates within the euro area are increasingly due to structural reasons. Welcoming Slovenia to the euro, MEPs ask the Commission and ECB to evaluate whether it is justified to use different price stability criteria for accession to the euro than those for setting interest rates....

15 November 2006  "COMESA to hold summit in Djibouti to boost integration"   from the Peoples Daily, online, China.

Excerpts from the article...

   Heads of State from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries will meet Djibouti Wednesday in the coastal town of Djibouti, the capital of the republic also known as Djibouti, for the bloc's 11th annual summit...

   COMESA is the largest African economic bloc, grouping Angola, Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe...

   In the year 2000, COMESA launched the first ever African Free Trade Area which currently comprises 13 member states. It is scheduled to launch a Customs Union in 2008 and a full Monetary Union involving the use of a common currency issued by a common Central Bank in 2025.

10 November 2006 "Resuscitating the General Assembly of the UN" by David Khorram in the Saipan Tribune, Saipan, US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas

Excerpt from the Op-Ed....

   5. Investigating the Possibility of a Single International Currency

   The need to promote the adoption of a global currency as a vital element in the integration of the global economy is self-evident. Among other benefits, economists believe that a single currency will curb unproductive speculation and unpredictable market swings, promote a leveling of incomes and prices worldwide, and thereby result in significant savings.

   The possibility of savings will not lead to action unless there is an overwhelming body of evidence addressing the relevant concerns and doubts of skeptics, accompanied by a credible implementation plan. We propose the appointment of a Commission consisting of the most accomplished government leaders, academics and professionals to begin immediate exploration into the economic benefits and the political costs of a single currency and to hypothesize about an effective implementation approach.

6 November 2006.  Government of India Press Release:  "PM’S KEY-NOTE ADDRESS AT ICRIER’S SILVER JUBILEE CONFERENCE RESEARCH AGENDA FOR ECONOMIC THINK TANKS OUTLINED"

Excerpts from the Press Release...

   The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has stressed the need to study the characteristics driving trade in natural resources, particularly the energy resources; the impact of international economic relationships on this trade; the perceived drive by some countries for securing sources of energy and minerals in third countries and the implications of this for free markets in these goods; and, policy guidance for our own planners and diplomats to secure our own economic future in this vital area.

   Addressing the Silver Jubilee Conference of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations [ICRIER], here today, Dr. Singh also underlined the need to study in-depth development trends in China and their implications for our development and effects of the large number of Free Trade Agreements we are entering or planning to enter into....

   I also believe that a think tank must engage public opinion at home and abroad and shape thinking on issues of interest to our country. For example, I have not seen adequately informed discussion at home on the pros and cons of the recent restructuring of voting rights within the IMF. Nor on the Asian Monetary Union that is being discussed in some circles....

[emphasis added on website]

4 November 2006.  IMF Press Release:  IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato Welcomes the Large Investment Programs in the GCC Countries and Highlights the Importance of Planned Monetary Union  

Excerpts from the press release 06/240:

   Mr. Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today after a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the finance ministers and central bank governors of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

   "I appreciate the opportunity to meet with the finance ministers and central bank governors of the GCC and to join their discussion of common challenges and ways to address them....

   I continue to strongly support the objective of establishing a GCC monetary union by 2010. Achieving this important objective within the agreed timeframe will however require accelerating the preparatory work to put in place the necessary institutional framework and infrastructure. The Fund stands ready to assist by providing policy advice and technical assistance in our areas of its expertise."...

[The Single Global Currency Assn. followed up on this speech by writing an email on 16 November 2006 to Mr. de Rato  to ask the IMF to expand its support of monetary union by encouraging existing monetary unions to expand and by encouraging the formation of other such monetary unions.  Also, he was asked to support a Global Monetary Union, with such support beginning at the level of assigning economists at the IMF to study its costs and benefits.]

 

31 October 2006.  Single Global Currency on list of Ambassadors' priorities, even if low.  " U.N. envoys draw up 'can do' list".  by Betsy Pisik, The Washington Times

Excerpts from the article...

   NEW YORK -- Acknowledging they can't save the world by 2015, a group of U.N. ambassadors has decided international-aid efforts should be focused on improving global access to clean water, health services and education.

   Falling to the bottom of the list are such projects as addressing climate change through carbon taxes, adopting a global currency to reduce financial instability and liberalizing trade barriers.
    Anti-corruption efforts, reforming immigration policies and imposing the Kyoto Protocol were clustered toward the middle.
    "There is this tendency in the United Nations, in government, the private sector, everywhere: You want it all," said Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, which seeks to support the Millennium Development Goals by prioritizing resources.

[emphasis added on website]

See also, the website of the Copenhage Consensus with the full report of the Conference: "Copenhagen Consensus 2006"  "Adopt a common currency" was ranked as the 39th, out of 40, most urgent solution.  Generally, "Financial Instability" was ranked low in the list of CHALLENGES.

25 October 2006.  "Almunia says 'undesirable' to act on Sweden's euro refusal"  by Lucia Kubosova and Teresa Kuchler in the euobserver.com.

Excerpts from the article...

   EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia has said that Brussels could in theory take Sweden to Europe's top court for not joining the euro despite meeting all the economic criteria - but he added that such action "is not necessary or desirable" for now....
    Sweden, which entered the EU in 1995, is legally obliged to enter the eurozone, an obligation enshrined in its EU accession treaty as in the case of ten member states that joined the union in 2004.

   Non-euro members UK and Denmark, on the other hand, have negotiated an opt-out from the single currency.
According to Mr Posselt who raised the issue in a special Q&A session with the monetary commissioner, Sweden's attitude sets a bad example for other countries gearing up to join the euro.

   "They have ratified the accession treaty so how come they can organise a referendum and refer to it for not fulfilling the rules in this treaty?" he told EUobserver.

   "This is a union of laws and rules. And member states can't just pick up one rule that they don't like and just ignore it. If they said - we need five or ten years to prepare, it is ok with me - but just to be quiet about the issue and do nothing is unacceptable."...

25 October 2006.  "London consolidates lead in global foreign exchange markets"  by David Prosser in The Independent, online.

Excerpts from the article...

   Britain's dominant grip on the global foreign exchange market has tightened to such an extent over the past 12 months that almost a third of the world's currency trading transactions now take place in this country.

   Average daily turnover on the UK's foreign exchange market reached $1.1 trillion (£587bn) in April 2006, the last month for which figures are available from an annual survey by International Financial Services London (IFSL). [emphasis added on website]

[Note that if the article is correct, the worldwide currency trading totals have grown to $3.3 trillion, which is fully $.8 trillion more than the $2.5 trillion estimate in the Single Global Currency Assn.'s book, The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World, and almost double the totals in the $1.8 trillion in the Bank of International Settlement's 2004 Triennial Survey.]

 

23 October 2006.  10 southern African countries sign up to finance and investment pact  from the Associated Press in the International Herald Tribune

Excerpts from the article...

   JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Ten southern African nations have signed a finance and investment agreement meant to help boost economic integration and foreign investment in the region, officials said Monday.

   Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland signed the Protocol on Finance and Investment at a special summit of heads of government of the 16-nation Southern African Development Community, following the signature of the pact by seven other governments at a meeting in August ...

   The free trade area would be followed by the establishment a Customs Union by 2010, a Common Market by 2015 and Economic and Monetary Union by 2018....

[emphasis added on website]

 

14 October 2006.  "Purdah most horrible"  in the LEX column in the Financial Times.

The column begins....

    Forget Opus Dei or alien autopsies in Area 51. The real global conspiracy involves central bankers. So far in October, hawkish public comments have been made by seven members of the European Central Bank's governing council, five Federal Reserve officials, four members of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee and, yesterday, the governor of the Bank of Japan. The result? Two-year yields have jumped by roughly 10 basis points in all four territories. A complacent bond market has been given a rap on the knuckles.

   Central banks deny the existence of informal communication strategies designed to move markets. But the evidence is right before investors' eyes. The Fed, whose formal mechanisms are limited to eight written statements and sets of minutes annually and the chairman's biannual testimony to Congress, has a tradition of using speeches and hints to hone its message to the bond market. The ECB, with 18 council members - 12 of whom represent national authorities - can resemble a cacophony. Even the BoE, with the most laborious formal procedures, drops occasional hints.

   Most central bankers take an enforced break from bossing about bond markets for a week before each interest rate decision. What they chat about in private during this sensitive period, known as "purdah" in the UK, is unknown. Some observers, naively, assume they discuss inflationary risks in a world still awash with liquidity. Only conspiracy theorists realise that central bankers' favourite topic is the creation of a single global currency, governed by an omnipotent council.

[emphasis added on website]

16 October 2006. "Dollar Falls as Russian Central Bank Will Boost Yen Reserves "  from Bloomberg by Daniel Kruger and Min Zeng

Excerpts about the 2010 Gulf Cooperation Council Monetary Union...

    Governors of six Persian Gulf central banks, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, will meet next month as they seek to create the Middle East's first unified currency by 2010, a Qatari official said.

Monetary Union

   The meeting, planned for Nov. 4 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is the next  step in a round of talks among the six Gulf monarchies to discuss monetary union, said Basheer Yousef al-Kahalooth, an official at the Qatar Central Bank, in a phone interview from Doha.

Monetary union among the Persian Gulf monarchies may lead to the end of their currencies' peg to the U.S. dollar, and "a more flexible currency regime,'' said Monica Malik, an economist with Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai.

   "This is another dollar-selling factor,'' said Brian Dolan, research director at Forex.com, a unit of online currency trading firm Gain Capital in Bedminster, New Jersey, which has about $250 million worth of funds under management. "It is eroding some of the dollar strength we have seen in the past two weeks.''

 

15 October 2006.  "Sterling’s lucky escape from euro"  by David Smith in the Sunday Times.  Despite the unfavorable headline, the column does provide a specific look at what might have been.  At bottom, it predicts the demise of the euro.

Excerpts from the column.....

   TUCKED away on the Treasury's website is a rather sad little document that has been made available under the Freedom of Information Act. It is the plan for switching to the euro in Britain when the time comes....

   What would have happened had we joined? Three years is too short a timescale to say, but we can estimate what might have happened had Britain gone in at the euro's inception in 1999. Marchel Alexandrovich of Dresdner Kleinwort, in a simulation, says that there would have been an almighty boom soon after entry, with growth reaching nearly 5.5%, followed by a more pronounced boom-bust cycle. The housing market would have risen faster and further, though it might by now also have crashed.

Entry would have meant lower interest rates; just 2% much of the time. The Bank of England would have been turned into a branch office of the European Central Bank, relieving its governor of direct responsibility for controlling inflation or writing letters of explanation to the chancellor when the target was missed. But inflation would have been significantly higher, typically 3%-4% even on the consumer prices index. We had a lucky escape....

   The Centre for European Reform is not given to alarmism over the European “project”, being very much in favour of it, but a recent paper, Will the Eurozone Crack? by Simon Tilford, set out the dangers clearly....

   If Italy fails to improve its competitiveness, it could be forced to leave the eurozone. The consequences would be hugely damaging not just for Emu, but for Europe more broadly. It could easily force other countries to leave and threaten the single market.”

This chimes with my view that the euro will not survive in its present form for the next 10 years. I am glad, despite the irritations, that we are part of the EU. But when it comes to the euro, it is a case of better off out.

 

 

10 October 2006.  "WAMZ [West African Monetary Zone] To Start Trading In Local Currencies"  by Boahene Asamoah in Graphic Ghana

In its entirety...

   Member countries under the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) will by the end of this year start a process towards a more accelerated regional integration with a proposed quoting and trading in currencies within the territories of member states.

   To ensure a smooth implementation of the programme a workshop on “Quoting and Trading in WAMZ local currencies with representatives from central banks, financial institutions and other stakeholders was organised in Accra yesterday.

   Speaking at the function, the Director General of WAMZ, Dr Oku Joseph Nnanna, underscored the need to put in place a framework to formalise informal activities within member countries of WAMZ.

   The main objective of the workshop was to propose options for making WAMZ member currencies convertible to the zone.

   He said the currency convertibility “will serve as a catalyst for the introduction of the single currency, reduce transaction costs and improve foreign reserves of member countries”.

   Dr Nnanna said it was aimed at bringing the informal sector into the mainstream of convergence criteria, adding that it should be possible for businesses in member countries of WAMZ to trade freely without the institutional bottlenecks.

   “We must help our businesses to grow and become enterprises,” he stated, adding that trading in WAMZ currencies would facilitate the introduction of the single currency and trade and generate growth, reduce poverty and create wealth.

   Five countries under the WAMZ, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Guinea have undertaken to adopt a single currency, the ECO, by 2009.

   In 2005, the WAMZ postponed the commencement of monetary union to December 2009.

   The WAMZ approved an expanded work programme to facilitate the establishment of the monetary union.
Dr Nnanna said the informal sector in member countries were already practising the free convertibility of regional currencies in their cross-border activities with significant degree of success under parallel market conditions.

   “The formalisation of these activities will improve their efficiency, minimise the use of cash in business transactions, reduce the incidence of counterfeiting and ensure the expansion of intra-regional trade transactions,” the Director General stated.

8 October 2006. "Central Europe cannot afford euro delay"  by Wolfgang Munchau in the Financial Times.

Excerpts from the article...

     The 10 accession countries enjoyed seemingly miraculous economic runs through the 1990s, which ended at around the time of European Union accession, in 2004. Growth rates are still good and in some cases impressive. However, several of the states are growing at the expense of stability.

    Central European countries should have followed the example of Italy and Spain in the 1990s. Both countries made adoption of the euro their top priority. While the euro did not solve Italy's structural problems, it certainly led to substantial budgetary reforms that otherwise would not have taken place. Italy may find life inside the eurozone unbearable, but life outside would be far worse.

 

3 October 2006.  "How to Fix the Global Economy" New York Times Op-Ed, by Joseph Stiglitz

Excepts from the article...

   THE International Monetary Fund meeting in Singapore last month came at a time of increasing worry about the sustainability of global financial imbalances: For how long can the global economy endure America's enormous trade deficits — the United States borrows close to $3 billion a day — or China's growing trade surplus of almost $500 million a day?

   These imbalances simply can't go on forever. The good news is that there is a growing consensus to this effect...

   Underlying the current imbalances are fundamental structural problems with the global reserve system. John Maynard Keynes called attention to these problems three-quarters of a century ago. His ideas on how to reform the global monetary system, including creating a new reserve system based on a new international currency, can, with a little work, be adapted to today's economy. Until we attack the structural problems, the world is likely to continue to be plagued by imbalances that threaten the financial stability and economic well-being of us all.

[emphasis added on website]

 

3 October 2006.  "Financial Integration in the West African Economic and Monetary Union" by Amadou Sy, of the IMF.

The abstract reads...

   This study assesses the degree of financial integration in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The structure of the financial sector and its institutional arrangements indicate that financial integration is well advanced in some aspects. Common and foreign ownership of banks is very high and cross-border transactions are frequent in the government securities markets.

   Common institutions help achieve a high degree of similarity of rules. There is nonetheless scope for further financial integration as indicated by persistent deviations from the law of one price, limited cross-border bank transactions, and differences in treatment. Policy measures could therefore help achieve greater financial convergence.

3 October 2006.  Ghana debates not whether to join, but which monetary union to join.  "Ghana should join CFA zone, not W/A monetary union"   by Ayuure Kapini Atafori in The Statesman.

The article begins....

   Ghana should abandon its plans to join the proposed West African Monetary Zone, which has seen its commencement date postponed several times, and rather join the CFA monetary zone since she stands to gain more from it, given its location, a leading economist has suggested.

   "It is not economically viable for Ghana to join the West African Monetary Zone. To me, we should rather join the CFA zone,” Augustine Gockel, a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics of the University of Ghana told a forum at Legon, Accra, on Friday.

Dr Gockel argued that since Ghana is surrounded by French-speaking CFA zone countries, it makes economic sense for it to be a CFA holder in order to transact business easily with its neighbours.

 

3 October 2006. Joaquin Almunia, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, speaks optimistically of future Lithuanian adoption of the euro.

His speech concludes....

    Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude. Euro area enlargement is an ongoing process, opening a new chapter in European economic and monetary integration. The potential benefits are great but challenges need to be tackled head on. Economic policies in the run-up to euro adoption will be shaped by the need to maintain macroeconomic stability while assuring sustained strong growth in a catching-up context. Euro area entry should only take place when the conditions are right, based on an objective and impartial assessment under the provisions of the Treaty.

    Euro area enlargement will create new opportunities for citizens and businesses, and will add welcome dynamism to the single currency area as a whole. Both existing and future euro area members will need to gear policies towards stable public finances and well-functioning product and labour markets. The times ahead will remain challenging, but I am confident that the elements are in place to make euro area enlargement an important chapter in the success story of European economic integration. In my mind there is no doubt that Lithuania will join the euro in a not-too-distant future, provided the right policies are swiftly put into place.

    While the exact date of euro adoption is your responsibility, I strongly encourage Lithuania to remain committed to a firm and credible medium-term policy strategy. This is the best choice for the long-term health of your country's economy, and it will improve prospects for achieving the policy priority of securing euro adoption as soon as possible.

 

28 September 2006  "The EU needs to step up to reform the international financial system"  by Frederic Rochelle in NewEuropeans Magazine.org

Excerpts follow.....

   As the General Assembly of the IMF and World Bank closed its doors last week in Singapore, one can just be astonished at how limited the European contribution has been, both in shaping the debate around governance and corruption (sparked around the World Bank) and also in leading the reform of the IMF, soon to be followed by the World Bank reform....

   To reorganize the world financial order, a “political globalization” has to catch up with the financial and economic globalization. The Europeans have to start looking outward, and not only inward to their own internal power struggles: rather than following the IMF director proposed slight adjustments of voting rights, it is time to take responsibility for the reorganization of these major financial flows, especially seen the risks involved there. Creativity is needed, both with a new institutional set-up: if the mandate of Mr. Trichet does not allow him to do so, should Mr. Juncker, the political Mr. Euro step up, with the support of his other European non-Euro colleagues? But also with operational solutions: since the dollar will continue to be a reserve currency, but with foreseeable less weight, should for instance a World Currency Unit be created, modeled on the European Currency Unit, and centered around Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yuan and Yen?....  [emphasis added at end]

 

27 September 2006  "An Asian currency - a bridge too far"  by Huw McKay in Asia Times online.

The Op-Ed begins....

   The United States recently ended its outright opposition to the establishment of a common currency in Asia. Soon after, a leading Chinese academic floated the "Asian Currency Unit" as a possible solution to the global imbalance dilemma. These events have reignited the debate on whether it should happen, how it might happen, and when it might happen.

   My stance is that anything other than a synthetic trading unit should not be established for a considerable time. By a "considerable time" I mean one measured in decades rather than years.

   The three major economic reasons that a common currency is not a good idea at this moment are these:
    1. Living standards and potential growth rates across Asia are too diverse for a "one size fits all" monetary policy.
    2. Intra-Asian trade is already significantly higher than standard models predict. The increase in trade that a common currency would bring about might therefore be negligible in the absence of supporting liberalization.
    3. The free capital mobility that monetary union implies is inconsistent with the objectives of a number of prospective member nations....

[By SGCA:  however, living standards vary in the Eurozone, too, and trade WILL increase with a common currency, and capital flows freely within a monetary union, and without effects on the common currency.]

21 September 2006.  The "World Currency" entry on Wikipedia now has link to Single  Global Currency Assn. website.

The entry cites these benefits for the SGC:

                      Arguments for a global currency

Some of the benefits cited by advocates of a global currency are that it would:

• Eliminate the direct and indirect transaction costs of trading from one currency to another [2] .
• Eliminate the balance of payments / current account problems of all countries.
• Eliminate the risk of currency failure & currency risk.
• Eliminate the uncertainty of changes in value due to exchange-caused fluctuations in currency value and the costs of hedging to protect against such fluctuations.
• Cause an increase in the value of assets for those countries currently afflicted with significant country risk.
• Eliminate the misalignment of currencies.
• Utilize the seigniorage benefit and control of printing money for the operations of the global central bank and for public benefit.
• Eliminate the need for countries or monetary unions to maintain international reserves of other currencies.

As of 21 September, this is the full entry for "World Currency"

 

20 September 2006  "World Bank to fund EAC programs"  by Mark Oloo, Kenya Times

The artcle begins...

   The World Bank has pledged to support the East African Community (EAC) in the implementation of its programmes, including the intended launch of a monetary union and a common market protocol.

 

20 September 2006  "Single common currency for Asia not discounted"   by Susan Tam, online Malaysia Star

  SINGAPORE: The proposal for a single common Asian currency to promote financial integration in the region is not discounted but stability should be given as a priority. 

    Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said although this proposal was unlikely to see light in the near future, there was no precluding the possibility of having a common currency for countries in Asia. 

   “But we, of course, would like to see stability with foreign exchange markets operating in our region. 

   “Especially as the markets become highly integrated, that stability is important,” she told StarBiz after delivering a presentation at the IMF-World Bank Asian Financial Integration Symposium yesterday. 

    This event was held at the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank meetings scheduled to end tomorrow. 

    Earlier, University of California professor Barry Eichengreen said for the region to undergo efficient financial integration, one way was to move towards having a common currency for the region. 

    But, first, the region should have a parallel currency, he said. “This can be a basket of regional currencies and can be taken towards a legal tender status.” 

    When this happened, assuming that it was stable and financial markets would use it (parallel currency), Asia could then move towards a single currency, he said, adding: “Once the parallel currency gains a significant market share, we can then talk about having a common currency.” 

    Eichengreen said although this process might take a long time, similar to how the euro took some time to be accepted in Europe, it should not pose as an obstacle towards financial integration (in Asia). 

 

19 September 2006  "Abu Dhabi base for GCC Central Bank" from Trade Arabia Web Services.

In its entirety....

   The GCC states have already agreed to base the new GCC Central Bank in Abu Dhabi, a report said.

   The GCC monetary union is expected to be in place in 2010, when the common currency will also be launched, Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, Governor of the UAE Central Bank, was quoted as saying in a Gulf News report.

   He also said a future common GCC currency should not be pegged to the US dollar.

 

19 September 2006 "Eurozone could fall apart due to slow economic reforms, says report"  by Honor Mahony in the online Eu Observer.

The article begins...

   The eurozone risks breaking up in the near future putting the entire EU single market into jeopardy unless member states – particularly Italy - undertake crucial economic reforms, according to a new report.

   Entitled Will the eurozone crack?, the report by the London-based Centre for European Reform, argues that instead of European Monetary Union in 1999 leading to progress in the reform needed for membership of a single currency zone, it resulted in national governments becoming complacent and no longer feeling obliged to push through unpopular economic changes....

18 September 2006  "Asia common currency not in my lifetime, says Thai central bank head"  from Reuters

   The creation of a common Asian currency is still a long way off and it is hard to envisage one region with a single interest rate policy, Bank of Thailand governor Pridiyathorn Devakula said on Sept 18.

"I don't see it within my lifetime," Pridiyathorn said when asked about the possibility of a common Asian currency at a seminar on Asian integration in Singapore.

   He said that given the diversity among Asian economies, it was difficult to visualise a single currency, backed by a single monetary policy.

   "We don't see how a single currency can solve problems," he added. "It's impossible, I don't believe in that yet."

   Earlier when talking about integration, Pridiyathorn said, "more needs to be done to relax restrictions in some countries on cross-border capital flows."

   He added, however, that the sequence of such liberalisation needs to be properly determined.

   Intra-regional trade among the 10-member Asean along with China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong accounted for 55% of their total trade in 2005.

   Asean external trade is more than US$1 trillion (RM3.68 trillion).

   Last month Asean trade ministers endorsed a plan to speed up the timetable for economic union, targeting 2015. - Reuters

18 September 2006  "Asia's diversity makes single currency unfeasible"   by Lee Ching Wern, Singapore News

Excerpts of the article ....

   EVEN as Asia works towards achieving regional integration, the idea of adopting a European-style single currency is not feasible here.

   The vast disparity between Asian countries makes monetary integration a very "risky proposal that can derail a commitment to Asian economic integration", said Second Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday at the Per Jacobsson lecture in conjunction with the IMF-World Bank meetings.

   Addressing an audience of top bankers, academics and businessmen on the topic "Asian Monetary Integration: Will it Ever Happen?", Mr Tharman pointed out that unlike in the European Union, where its member countries are more similar in terms of their levels of wealth, economic structure and stages of development, Asian countries are much more diverse.

   When it comes to intra-regional trade, this disparity is an advantage as each nation can offer the other something different....

     But unlike Europe, there is no overriding political objective of achieving union in Asia. "So the costs are more significant than the advantages for monetary union," he said.

   Even without a common currency, Asian countries seem to be coming up with their own solution....

    But he wouldn't rule out the possibility of having some formalised coordination of currencies. However, current proposals like having a common currency basket that each national currency can be pegged to; or having a parallel currency running alongside the national currencies, are not ideal either.

  "All these proposals I think are worth leaving on the table but they do not advance the present job - that of trade and financial integration," said Mr Tharman. For now, the game in Asia is to concentrate on economic and financial integration.

  

15 September 2006 "62% of Poles would welcome the Euro"  Polskie Radio

The majority of Poles support the country's introduction of the common EU currency - the Euro. While 62% of respondents support the idea, one fifth do not expect Poland to put the Euro in circulation before 2010. A similar survey conducted in Slovakia and Hungary showed a higher willingness of those nations to be members of the Euro zone, especially in Hungary. The most recent Eurobarometer poll revealed that out of all the EU countries that still have their national currencies the number of people who have ever used the common currency is the lowest in Poland.

13 September 2006 "Euro currency unpopular in Czech Republic" by Mark Beunderman in the EU Observer.

   More Czech people oppose the introduction of the euro to their country than support it, according to a fresh survey.

   A poll conducted by the Median agency revealed on Tuesday (12 September) that almost four out of 10 Czechs oppose the adoption of the EU's common currency, according to AFP.

   Around 38 percent of people surveyed said they are broadly against their country joining the 12-member eurozone, while 29 percent responded in favour of the idea.

   Divergences between those taking clear stances on the issue are even sharper, with the percentage of those clearly against euro adoption (15%) lying almost twice as high as the percentage of clear supporters (8%).

   Meanwhile, almost a third of the 7,425 Czechs quizzed in the poll said they had no opinion on the issue or did not want to give any.

   The new centre-right Czech government, led by prime minister Mirek Topolanek, is more critical of the EU than the previous social democrat coalition.

   Mr Topolanek's cabinet was sworn in on 4 September after months of bickering on the formation of a government, with June elections producing an exactly equal split between left and right in the Czech parliament.

   AFP writes that the country's new finance minister Vlastimil Tlusty on Monday ruled out that his country will next year join the so-called ERM II (Exchange Rate Mechanism II) – an intermediate step before eventual eurozone membership.

   ERM II entry in 2007 would allow the adoption of the euro in 2010 – a goal set by the previous centre-left government.

 

13 September 2006   "A Single Global Currency?" by Edgardo B. Espiritu, in The Manila Times.

Excerpts of the article....

... Now there is an even bigger proposal—the introduction of a Global Currency Unit (GCU) that will be the basic unit to measure international transactions. The proponent is Mr. Robert H. Wade, a professor of political economy at the London School of Economics. He said in his recent article in the International Hearld Tribune (“The Case for a Global Currency,”) that “the world economy needs an international currency distinct from national currencies and national interests.”...

....It is certainly time for the world financial and economic leaders to start seriously considering solutions such as these, given the gravity and magnitude of the problem of global financial imbalances. We have seen how financial crises can wreak havoc in the real econo­my and in people's lives, particularly in the emerging economies here in Asia, and if we have learned our lessons, we should now be working intently on a plan to address them.

[For more information about the Wade article, see below, at 4 August 2006.  "The case for a global currency" by Professor Robert H. Wade]

 

5 September 2006  "A common currency for Mercosur?"   in "TRADE TALK" in Latin Business Chronicle.com.

Excerpted paragraph reads...

   Brazil and Argentina, the top Mercosur countries, are now formally planning to launch a common currency, according to statements last week by finance ministers Guido Mantega of Brazil and Felisa Miceli of Argentina. According to information from Miceli quoted by French news agency AFP, the new currency will likely be launched next year and be gradually implemented, starting with two way trade of goods first. 

   The new currency will benefit traders since they will pay less exchange fees, Mantega says. If it becomes a reality, the new currency will represent two vastly different monetary policies : Brazil's, which has aimed at keeping inflation under tight control, and Argentina's, which has failed completely at doing the same. No news yet on whether the other three Mercosur countries (Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela) will join as well.

 

3 September 2006  "High energy prices delay EU recruits' eurozone entry"  by Graham Searjeant, Financial Editor, the Times, online.

Excerpts of the article....

   PROLONGED high energy prices and fears of recession are setting back the plans of the European Union's new member states to join the eurozone.

   Hopes of most of the ten EU states planning to adopt the euro have been put back by up to two years since Slovenia was approved as the 13th country to adopt the single currency from the start of next year.

   High oil prices have pushed up inflation in small countries with high rates of economic growth, particularly in the Baltic region.

   Lithuania suffered a 40 per cent rise in gas prices in January after its long-term supply contract expired and was refused early entry into the euro because its inflation rate was 2.7 per cent, less than 0.1 percentage points above the required rate.

   Lithuania is now officially expecting to join in 2009, in tandem with Estonia. In Latvia, consumer price inflation topped 6 per cent in the spring, when the country was still hoping for 2008 entry....

   Fitch Ratings, in a new study on convergence for economic and monetary union, forecasts that only Cyprus will actually be able to join the single currency in 2008, with Malta and Slovakia following in 2009. The credit rating agency sees the three Baltic states being accepted for 2010, although Estonia could go a year earlier. The Czech Republic is pencilled in for 2011, Poland for 2012 and Hungary, which has the biggest fiscal deficit, only for 2014.

   Fitch says that its projections have been put back by an average of two years since it reported on convergence 12 months ago. Others suggest a later date for Polish entry.

 

3 September 2006  "Bonpasse: Common cents just makes sense"  by Christopher Cousins in the Times Record, Brunswick, Maine

The article begins...

   Morrison Bonpasse has a plan to change the world's change by 2024.

   It's all laid out in his 2006 book "The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World"...

[Correction: The article states that there 190 different currencies in the world - 147 in United Nations Countries alone - each with its own value relative to the others.  However, it's more correct to say that there are 147 currencies among the 192 members of the United Nations.]

 

2 September 2006 "GCC panel to study draft rules on Monetary Union"  from the Khaleej Times.

   ABU DHABI — The GCC Technical Committee for Monetary Union, which concluded its two meeting in the capital, asked for further studying the draft report presented on the legislation and rules regarding GCC common monetary authority.

   A high-level 17th meeting of GCC Technical Committee for the Monetary Union discussed several important issues within the GCC schedule for Monetary Union and issuance of the common currency. Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, Governor Central Bank of the UAE, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by Mohammed Obeid Al Mazroui, Assistant Secretary General-Economic Affairs and Dr Nasser Ibrahim Al Qaoud, Director of the Monetary Division at the GCC General Secretary, delegates from GCC countries and members of the committee.

   The meeting took up a study prepared by the Central Bank of the UAE on adequacy of the Monetary Authority's reserves of foreign currency for covering value of commodity imports of the GCC countries. It also discussed a recommendation of the second meeting of the Work Team assigned to study specifications, denominations, designs, issuance and launching mechanism of the unified currency.

   The committee reviewed the GCC General Secretariat's report on the workshop on the monetary and financial statistics, which was held in July in collaboration with the IMF.

   The GCC top financial officials also reviewed suggestions to the paper on GCC progress presented by Kuwait during the 8th consultation meeting of the GCC Supreme Council. The committee reviewed report and recommendation of delegation of the Technical Committee for Payment Systems on their visit and meeting with officials at the European Central Bank and the Deutsche Bank.

September 2006 "Ahead of His Time - People in Economics." An interview with Robert Mundell in the IMF Quarterly Journal: Finance and Development, by Laura Wallace.

Excerpts....

   "How about the rest of the world? Actually, if Mundell could have his way, the entire world would be one big optimum currency area, sharing a global currency....

   Mundell argues that the best system for both small and large countries would be a stable international monetary system based on fixed exchange rates. A second-best, interim, arrangement would be for the smaller countries to fix credibly to the dollar or the euro, in this way participating in the stability of the larger currency area. However, the solution would be even better if a basket of the dollar, the euro, and the yen—what he calls the DEY—were to become the nucleus of a new global currency issued by a revamped IMF...."

31 August 2006.  "Hungarian government approves EMU convergence program"  from the Asssociated Press.

Excerpts from the article...

   The government on Thursday approved Hungary's European Monetary Union convergence program, which will be submitted to the EU on Sept. 1, a government spokeswoman said....

Jarai said the plan would give Hungary more credibility as it moves toward adopting the 12-nation common currency....

   The council earlier this week said the country's plans for adopting the euro should set a date by mid-2008 for changing to the common European currency.

   Hungary, which joined the EU in 2004, had planned to adopt the euro in 2010, but postponed that because of a large budget deficit, which this year is forecast to reach 10.1 percent of gross domestic product -- three times the EU limit for countries using the euro.

EU members who have yet to enter the euro zone must design a convergence program annually. Countries that already use the common currency are required to prepare a draft called the stability program....

 

29 August 2006.  Reposting on the web of Herbert Grubel's 1999 article, "The Case for the Amero" as posted on the Vive Le Canada website.

Excerpts from the article...

   On the day the North American Monetary Union is created--perhaps on January 1, 2010--Canada, the United States, and Mexico will replace their national currencies with the amero.1 On that day, all American dollar notes and coins will be exchanged at the rate of one US dollar for one amero (). Canadian and Mexican currencies will be exchanged at rates that leave unchanged their nations' competitiveness and wealth. In all three countries, the prices of goods and services, wages, assets, and liabilities will be simultaneously converted into ameros at the rates at which currency notes are exchanged.

   At the same time, the national central banks of the three countries will be replaced by the North American Central Bank. The operations of that bank will be governed by a constitution like that of the European Central Bank, which makes it responsible solely for maintaining price stability. It is not required to pursue full employment or maintain certain exchange rates. Its personnel policies will be free from political influences, in particular those arising out of partisan national politics in member countries....

29 August 2006.  "Poland Won't Set Euro Entry Date, Needs More Time, Kluza Says"  Bloomberg.net by Katya Andrusz and Dorota Bartyzel

Excerpts of the article...

    Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Poland, the only new European Union member never to have set a date for adopting the euro, needs more time to trim its $10 billion deficit before deciding when it will do so, Finance Minister Stanislaw Kluza said.

    To join the euro area, the 10 nations that joined the European Union in 2004 need to trim shortfalls to within 3 percent of gross domestic product and keep debts and inflation in check. Poland meets the debt and inflation rules, while the deficit is forecast at 4.6 percent of GDP this year, according to EU rules....

   The EU this year rejected a bid from Lithuania, the largest Baltic country, to adopt the euro on Jan. 1. Estonia, which also wanted to adopt at the beginning of next year, pulled out after soaring economic growth pushed inflation beyond the limits. Latvia postponed its Jan. 1, 2008, start date for the same reason....

 

29 August 2006.  "Beijing heavy hitter takes aim at revaluation's backers"  by John Garnaut, Economics Correspondent in the Sydney, Australia, Morning Herald. (See similar article at Forbes.com "China adviser rebuffs calls for yuan revaluation - report"  by Sean Mangieri, AFX News)

Excerpts from the article....

   THE newest member of the Chinese monetary policy committee will today launch a stinging attack on those calling for a major revaluation of the yuan.

   Fan Gang, a Harvard-educated economist who this month joined the People's Bank of China committee responsible for advising on interest rates and exchange rate settings, says the US dollar, not the Chinese currency, is "a major source of instability"....

   ... Dr Fan does not blame the US for the global imbalances that rile US Congressmen and jeopardise the financial systems of developing economies. Instead, he points to the absence of any global currency system after the collapse of the gold standard.

   He says the world's choice of the US dollar as its global currency standard has released US policy makers from the usual economic constraints of excess liquidity....

   Dr Fan, the director of the National Economic Research Institute in Beijing, says the answer lies in a new currency standard somewhere between the old "rigid" gold standard and a new "utopian" international currency.

   He advocates a new Asian currency unit being discussed at the Asian Development Bank.

   "This is no ivory tower exercise. Both China and Japan are very serious about it."...

27 August 2006.  "EU poll shows 82% of Slovenians support the euro"  from w.portalino.it

Excerpts from the article...

   Slovenians mostly think about the EU in connection with the single European currency, the euro, with 82% of those surveyed in favour of the European Monetary Union and the euro, according to the results of the latest Eurobarometer poll.

   The results, presented by the European Commission Representation in Slovenia on Monday, also show that 58% of Slovenians think positively of the EU, while their trust in European institutions is improving.

   According to the poll, carried out in March and April on 1,033 Slovenians, 65% of them trust the European Commission (up from 53% from the autumn poll) and 61% trust the European Central Bank (up from 47% half a year ago).

   The loss of the country's national currency, the tolar, is meanwhile feared by 35% of those polled, down from 39% in the autumn Eurobarometer. Slovenia is to switch over to the euro on 1 January 2007....

   Over half of those polled meanwhile said that Slovenia's priority task is fighting unemployment (55%), followed by measures to improve the economic situation (34%)....

   In comparison with the Eurobarometer carried out one year ago, a greater percentage of Slovenians also believe that membership in the EU is something good. The number stands at 54% currently, up from 43% a year ago.

26 August 2006.  " Mercosur Econ Mins To Meet In Brazil On Common Currency"  on Easybourse.com from Dow-Jones News, by Drew Benson

   BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- Argentine Economy Minister Felisa Miceli will join her counterparts from the Southern Cone Common Market, or Mercosur, in Brazil next week to discuss a regional currency and a development bank, her office reported Friday.
Mercosur economy ministers suggested a move to a common currency - and away from the dollars normally used in cross-border trade - at a trade bloc summit last month in Cordoba, Argentina.
Next week's meeting will take place Thursday in Rio de Janeiro.

   The Mercosur nation ministers are also expected to discuss strategy ahead of next month's meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Singapore.  Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela make up the Mercosur bloc.
    Miceli criticized the IMF at an economic seminar in Buenos Aires earlier this week. The lender needs to ensure "sustained growth for the global economy and not continue proposing adjustment measures that go off course into future crises," she said.

25 August 2006. "Monetary policy hurting Canada, Duceppe says" by Rheal Seguin, Globe and Mail (Canada)

The article begins....

   QUEBEC CITY -- Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe is calling for debate on a common currency in the Americas after the majority takeover of Quebec-based Domtar Inc. by the U.S. forestry giant Weyerhaeuser Co.

   Mr. Duceppe said Canadian monetary policy encourages the foreign takeover of Quebec and Canadian companies by penalizing companies that rely heavily on exports.

   "We have this ridiculous economic policy that when exports grow, the economy gets stronger and the value of our currency increases. Then exports decline and things get worse. It's always like a yo-yo," Mr. Duceppe said yesterday.

   A debate on monetary policy is needed, he said, because the Bank of Canada is so closely tied to U.S. Federal Reserve policies that it has lost its ability to influence independent economic policies at home....

 

24 August 2006.  "Common currency basket for East Asia proposed"  by Minderjeet Kaur, Business Times, Malaysia.

The article begins...

 

16 August 2006.  Article in Johannesburg Mail and Guardian about SADC - the 14 nation South African Development Community  by Andre Grobler | Maseru, Lesotho

Excerpts from the article:

   Salomao said the ministers had decided, due to human and financial constraints, that the regional body will focus on five broad areas of development.

   "We have come to a conclusion that we cannot do everything at the same time."

   The first priority for the SADC region is peace, political stability and security.

   "[This is] the prerequisite for us to address our main challenges: underdevelopment and poverty," Salomao said.

   The second priority the body set for itself is liberalising trade between member countries. The SADC wants to be a free-trade area by 2008, a customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015, a monetary union by 2016 and have a single currency by 2018.

   Infrastructure development is identified as the third priority. This includes transport networks like roads, rail, ports and airports in the region.

   The fourth priority is food security, seen as one of the issues affecting the daily lives of the region's people. Skills development is the fifth priority. [emphasis added here.]

8 August 2006.  Possible future Israel membership in European Monetary Union, noted in "VP Verheugen doesn’t rule out eventual monetary union for Israel "  in a European Union newsletter.

Excerpts from the article...

    ...The future perspective, said Commissioner Verheugen, was for Israel to be, “widely integrated into the European economic structures, and to fully participate in the internal market. It would not even exclude monetary union. The Israelis have asked me: What does that mean? I said, it means that company from Haifa can move to Copenhagen or Rome just as freely as companies from Atlanta can move to Boston or Seattle....

 

8 August 2006.  Possible South Asian common currency noted in "India, Pakistan Form Friendly Ties"  in Seoul Times.

Excerpts from the article....

   ....However, recently at the meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Musharraf and Vajpayee met and shook hands in what turned out to be a memorable episode.

   Which has had a remarkable cascading effect.
Islamabad and New Delhi will begin composite talks — which will include Kashmir — in February.

   As a follow-up to that, the two nations have restored diplomatic relations, air, rail and road links, and have begun toying with the idea of a having a common currency for SAARC (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka), and this can be the Indian rupee....

 

4 August 2006.  "The case for a global currency" by Professor Robert H. Wade, London School of Economics.  International Herald Tribune.  See image of article, including sample dollar of "United States of the World"

   The column notes that it is unsatisfactory for a single nation, the U.S., to manage a global currency, upon which so much of the world depends.

The column closes with:

  ...The root of the problem, though, is not the imperialist behavior of the United States, it is the asymmetry created by the fact that one national currency is also the international currency. Any other state whose currency was the international currency would probably behave much as the United States does.

   The world economy needs an international currency distinct from national currencies and national interests. The currency should be designed to incorporate the advantages of the gold standard, such as impartial levying of costs on states which are profligate, without its disadvantages, such as excessive rigidity.

   We should be thinking of creating a global currency unit, or GCU, based on the inflation-adjusted real gross domestic product of the major economies. Governments and companies would issue bonds denominated in the GCU and hold them in their reserves. Countries could make cross-border payments in their own currency, with the payments settled inside an international clearing union using the GCU as the numeraire, or base unit of measure....

   What we need is a global currency.
 

21 July 06 "Currency Consolidation and Crises"  by Theodore di Stefano, E-Commerce Times. (Featuring interview with Clyde Prestowitz, author of 3 Billion New Capitalists and Rogue Nation.)

The article begins...

     There are changes on the horizon for the dollar. To protect our dollar, we must balance our budgets, save more as a nation and borrow less. The American people have always risen to challenges. I have no doubt that they will rise to this one.

    In a recent article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Monetary Unions: Are We on Our Way?" I talked about what I feel are the present dangers to the dollar and whether or not currency consolidation would reduce the risk of a dollar crisis.

For that article, I interviewed Morrison Bonpasse, the president of the Single Global Currency Association, and asked his opinion on currency consolidation and how it could help avert a currency crisis....

30 June 2006.  "PanAfrica: The AU-What the People Want - EDITORIAL"  in The Daily Observer - Banjul, The Gambia

Excerpts from the editorial...

    The Seventh Banjul AU summit is another landmark in the political development of our continent. The Syrte Declaration signed in Libya to establish the AU was done with a view to accelerate the unification of Africa....

    What the people of Africa want is total monetary union, with a single continental wide currency, which is backed up by the African Central Bank and that can be used as a legal tender any where in Africa....

 

2 June 2006.  "Monetary Unions: Are We On Our Way?"  by Ted di Stefano in Ecommerce Times.

The opinion piece begins...

   Most of us have a subtle, almost subconscious, awareness that the dollar is vulnerable to a currency crisis. Why? Because we realize that our US$4.8 trillion national debt is growing, due to our yearly deficits that have been running in the hundreds of billions.

   What has kept our dollar strong so far is the confidence that China and Japan have shown in it by each purchasing over $800 billion in dollar-denominated assets, like U.S Treasuries, government-backed mortgages, etc.

   Additionally, the fact that OPEC currently sets the value of a barrel of oil in dollars certainly helps the hegemony of the dollar. But, will foreign countries keep backing the dollar, given so much political volatility in the world today? And, is there a way by which we can avoid a world currency crisis?....

   There is another approach that is also intriguing. It's described in a book by Morrison Bonpasse entitled The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World, and is available from Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and directly from the Single Global Currency Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting one world currency by 2024, the 80th anniversary of the famous Bretton Woods conference.

   First a disclaimer: I am on the Advisory Board of this international association and will describe its goals without either advocating or disclaiming them. Now back to Morrison Bonpasse's book:

   Mr. Bonpasse explains how e-commerce has really made the time ripe for a single global currency, noting that a global currency union is more feasible now "... because the technology of computers and communications has enabled the faster distribution of information to a vastly larger audience than ever before ... and ... the lack of such technology was a major reason why a global currency was not created at Bretton Woods in 1944 ..."

   Bonpasse also says something in his book that is rather revelatory: Today "... money is far less important as a medium of exchange, as the most important medium now used is the digit in the form of an electron, in a cable or wire, or in the form of a radio or other electromagnetic wave ..."

   Before I met Bonpasse and before I became a member of the international advisory board of the Single Global Currency Association, I stated in my article entitled, Are We Headed Toward One World Currency? that, "E-banking is another factor that lends itself to some sort of currency amalgamation."

   The two solutions above from Prestowitz and Bonpasse show how we could avert a currency crisis, if one should ever come. Because currency fluctuations affect us all, whether we know it or not, it's fun to at least ponder the solutions....

29 May 2006.  The New York Times editorialized about the large risks of the vast U.S. indebtedness to foreigners, "The Interest Must Be Paid"

    The Times summarized the size of the problem:

...Today, however, 43 percent of the United States' publicly held debt of $4.8 trillion is held abroad, mainly by central banks in Japan, China and Britain and by offshore hedge funds. That's up from a 30 percent share in 2001, an extraordinary increase. Indeed, during the Bush years, 73 percent of new government borrowing has been from abroad....

  In response the SGCA wrote an email to The New York Times:

 

28 May 2006.  Providence Journal interviews Paul Volcker, with his copy of The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World, in "At Brown, Volcker discusses U.N. probe"  by Lynn Arditi.

Excerpts of the article....

   Volcker had arrived from New York City shortly before noon yesterday to deliver the Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture on International Affairs at Brown's Salomon Center.

The lecture, titled "Is the U.N. Up to Its Job?" was among the commencement weekend activities. Brown also is awarding Volcker a doctorate of humane letters....

   At the end of his lecture, Volcker received a standing ovation and a request by a graduating senior for his autograph.

Then he picked up his paperback copy of Morrison Bonpasse's The Single Global Currency, Common Cents for the World, put on his straw hat and prepared to walk.

 

18 May 2006. "COMMON CENTS" Review of The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World by Will Zachmann, in the Duxbury (Mass.) Clipper.

The review begins...

REALLY, IS IT NOT JUST COMMON CENTS?

      This is the key question posed by a just-published book advocating a single global currency managed by a Global Central Bank (GCB). Written by Duxbury native son turned Maine-iac Morrison Bonpasse (he now resides in Newcastle , Maine ) “The Single Global Currency -- Common Cents for the World” argues strongly that replacing the current proliferation of some 150-odd national currencies with a new single global currency would make the world more peaceful as well as considerably more prosperous....

 

15 May 2006. "Money changer  Morrison Bonpasse says a global currency could cure many of the world's economic woes — if economists only would accept the idea" in the Maine business bi-weekly, MaineBiz, by Andy Vietz.

The article begins...

   Morrison Bonpasse is no economist, and he's the first to admit it. The extent of the Newcastle resident's professional economic credentials? “I took Econ 101 at Yale forty 40 ago,” he says, sitting in the library of the old Maine farmhouse near the Sheepscot River that he shares with his wife, a former judge.

  But the 58-year-old lawyer, who made his name in this state by running Maine Staffing Services, an Augusta-based temp agency, during the late nineties, certainly has opinions about the global economy. And in late April he published a book on the topic — a book for which he has very large ambitions. “I believe this is the most important book from Maine since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring,” he says, referring to the 1962 masterpiece that has sold more than 2 million copies and is widely credited in founding the modern American environmental movement. “But that's if it sells. If it doesn't sell it'll be the sound of the tree falling in the woods that no one hears.”

 

26 April 2006.  The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World reviewed in Lincoln County Weekly (Maine) by Tatiana Brailovskaya, entitled: "The Dollar - By Many, Many Other Names".

The review begins....

   While national headlines focus on the spectacular — escalating global conflicts, political corruption, major social and environmental problems — a local author in Newcastle, Maine is advocating a dramatic solution to the rarely discussed, but massive costs plaguing the financial and monetary systems that run economies all over the world. In The Single Global Currency: Common Cents for the World, Morrison Bonpasse, the founder and president of the Single Global Currency Association, presents a convincing case that it is a moral imperative for the world's 191 nations to join together in a global monetary union and collectively save those economies trillions of dollars by adopting one common currency. Offering readers a comprehensive, but accessible journey through this multi-layered issue, Bonpasse calls for the world to set a goal of making the transition to a single currency by 2024....

 

26 April 2006.  "Channel 7 hosts 'Single Global Currency' discussion"

  The article begins...

DAMARISCOTTA (April 27): Morrison Bonpasse of the Single Global Currency Association (SGCA) appeared on Channel 7's "Art's Video Grab Bag" on April 20th to discuss the benefits of adopting a global monetary system. The association, founded by Bonpasse in 2003, seeks to educate people on the benefits of such a currency....

25 April 2006. "Is Single Global Currency Feasible?"  in Korea Times, by Morrison Bonpasse.

The Op-Ed piece begins....

   At an unrecorded moment about 2,500 years ago, people began trading with people who used different money, and two problems arose: How to value one currency compared to another and How to predict or control fluctuations in those values. Despite all the ensuing experience and analysis, the two problems persist and now must be solved.

    With current daily currency trading of $2.5 trillion, or $385 for every human on earth every working day, the cost of the failure to solve those problems has grown immensely.

    First, it costs about $400 billion per year just to perform all that trading. Second, as the world learned in the 1990's, there is a large risk of widespread currency failure; and the world's vast and growing global financial imbalances hang ominously over our heads. Third, the risk of such currency failure has led to a large undervaluation of the world's assets by approximately $36 trillion.

    As the late U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen might now say, if you take a $trillion here and a $trillion there, pretty soon you are talking about real money.

24 April 2006 "SGCA Conference set; book is published" in the Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire. page C1, C3

  Morrison Bonpasse, president of the Single Global Currency Associatoin, today will announce publication of his book, "The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World."

   Bonpasse, of Newcastle, Maine, and the SGCA annually host the single global currency conference at the Mount Washington Hotel.

   The conference is held in the Gifford conference room at the Mount Washington, across the hall fro the Gold Room that was used 62 years ago for the signing of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference agreements that produced the International Monetary Fund.

   The fund is an international organization that oversees global financial systems, monitors exchange rates and balance of payments. It was created at the conference, which was called the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference before becoming known simply as the Bretton Woods Conference.

   The SGCA's theory is that the world can save hundreds of billions of dollars, and eliminate currency crises and balance of payments problems, by forming a Global Monetary Union with a single global currency.  The book explains how the multicurrency foreign exchange trading system was developed about 2,500 years ago to enable people to trade with different currencies, but now is expensive, risky and obsolete as the world sees the exchange of $2.5 trillion per day, the SGCA said in a news release.

   The book is available from Amazon.com and directly through the Single Global Currency Association at http://www.singleglobalcurrency.org. It is the only book in the world, so far, that is entirely devoted to this subject, the SGCA said.

   The SGCA is in its third year of an 18-year effort to achieve a Global Monetary Union by 2024, the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference.

                                              +++++++

  The third Single Global Currency Conference will be held at Bretton Woods July 20-21. For information call (207) 586-6078 or log on to www.singleglobalcurrency.org.

23 April 2006  "SA wants rand adopted as common currency for SADC" by ANDnetwork.com (African News Dimension).

The article begins...

   South African Reserve Bank head of international relations, Mr Mshiyeni Belle, said South Africa was presently proposing that its rand be used as the common currency for SADC member states as the region comes up with its own currency.
    He told business journalists from SADC member states here that the SADC Committee of Central Bank Governors (CCBG) was presently working hard to harmonise their systems towards meeting this vision although the process is still at its elementary stages and rather slow.
    The Committee of Central Bank Governors was established in August 1995 as part of the Finance and Investment Sector of SADC.
    Since its inaugural meeting on 24 November 1995, the Committee of Governors has proposed several projects designed to contribute to the process of regional economic co-operation and integration.

  “We feel that as we move towards a common currency for the region, the easiest way to go about it will be to endorse the South African rand although this is a political matter which lies with the Heads of States of the member states,” he said.
    He said the SADC member states were taking a cue from the EU model where the trading bloc had to first convert to the German Deutsche Mark before coming up with the euro.
Asked to comment why he thought most SADC members were likely to accept the rand as a transitionary common currency for SADC, Mr Belle said although there were challenges towards this, the South African rand is widely accepted in most countries in the region.

19 April 2006  Newcastle Man Authors Global Currency Book Lincoln County News, Maine.

   The Single Global Currency Association is publishing the first edition of the book, The Single Global Currency - Common Cents for the World.

    Written by Morrison Bonpasse of Newcastle, the president of the association, the book shows how the world can save hundreds of billions of dollars, and eliminate currency crises and balance of payments problems, by forming a Global Monetary Union with a Single Global Currency. Despite its 424 pages and 720 endnotes, but with only one graph, the book is intended for the people of the world, as well as academics.

    The book explains how the multi-currency foreign exchange trading system was developed about 2,500 years ago to enable people to trade with different currencies. That system has become far more sophisticated and larger in the meantime, and sees the exchange of $2.5 trillion per day; but it is very expensive, risky and obsolete.

    Said Bonpasse, "With the creation and coming expansion of the European Monetary Union, the people of the world can now see how to create a Global Monetary Union with a Single Global Currency. Stable money has been a goal for centuries, and now it's within reach."

    The book concludes that it is now time to replace the multicurrency system with a Single Global Currency which will eliminate the annual $400 billion transaction costs of that trading. Also to be eliminated will be the need for foreign exchange reserves, and the international debate about the fairness of countries' exchange rates. Gone, too, will be the currency risk which now depresses asset values, especially in underdeveloped countries. Without such currency risk, worldwide asset values are projected to increase by about $36 trillion, which will fuel an annual increase in world GDP of about $9 trillion.

    A Single Global Currency is no longer a utopian dream, but a realistic projection of what has been learned from existing monetary unions, especially the euro.

    The world needs to set the goal of a Single Global Currency by 2024, to be managed by a Global Central Bank, within a Global Monetary Union, thus establishing a "3-G" world. And begin planning - now. The book contains chapters about political and educational action in support of those goals including Chapter 7, "How to Get There from Here."

    Said Bonpasse, "Please read this book and help save the world - trillions."

    The book is available from Amazon.com and directly through the Single Global Currency Association at www.singleglobal currency.org and participating bookstores.

 

7 April 2006  "Why Join the Euro - An overview in relation to the Czech Republic, Poland and the UK."  by Louis Mann from 999Network.

The article begins...

   For Poland and the Czech Republic it is not a question of should they join the euro, but rather when will they join the euro? This is simply because both countries agreed as ‘part of the package' of joining the European Union (EU) that they would also adopt the euro.

   The Czech Republic is set to join in 2010, but Poland has not yet set a target date, although they are implementing policies in order to meet the criteria for joining set out in the Maastricht Treaty.

Britain is still undecided, but is not under the same pressure from the EU as adopting the euro was not part of the deal when Britain joined the EU in 1973. Nevertheless, there are significant benefits in joining European Monetary Union (EMU), which imply the strengthening of the economies which join. However, there are costs too and, as we shall see below, the costs and benefits depend on the economy in question.

20 February 2006.  Bank for International Settlements Economist urges fewer international currencies.  In Telegraph, U.K. article by Edmund Conway, "UK policy blamed for soaring debt levels"

Excepts from the article...

    But the powerful Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has now voiced grave doubts about the policy and called on politicians to begin debating an overhaul of the current global economic system.

    In another radical move it has also suggested ditching many national currencies in favour of a small number of formal currency blocks based on the dollar, euro and renminbi or yen.

The BIS, which is controlled by a coalition of central banks and helps oversee the global financial system, warned that by pushing interest rates so low, inflation targeting has encouraged the public to take on more debt and has accelerated a flow of money out of the world's major economies....

    Mr White also suggested ditching the current system of floating currencies and replacing it with "a small number of more formally-based currency blocks". He claimed that because of the record rate at which Asian central banks have been buying dollars in order to keep their currencies artificially low, "we do not really have a freely floating rate system"...

 

19 February 2006, "The Case for Fewer but Stronger Currencies"  by Daniel Gross, New York Times.

The article begins:

  "OUTSOURCING isn't just a one-way street on which rich countries shift jobs overseas. In recent years, some developing countries have contracted out the work of setting monetary policy to the United States. Ecuador and El Salvador, in 2000 and 2001, respectively, abandoned their own currencies, adopted the dollar and placed their monetary policy in the capable hands of Alan Greenspan , then the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

  When outsourcing involves manufacturing and software programming it is often endorsed by economists and condemned by populist political leaders. So, too, is the tactic of outsourcing of monetary policy — known as dollarization, or euro-ization. After all, noted Robert E. Litan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, "currencies are symbols of national sovereignty, and countries are reluctant to give them up."

  And yet nations can impose enormous costs on their citizens when they take extraordinary efforts to maintain independent currencies. "Devaluations of currencies cost people their savings and bring on rapid inflation," said Benn Steil, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-author with Mr. Litan of "Financial Statecraft" (Yale University Press, 2006). The two argue that the globe's mélange of 200-plus currencies, backed only by the faith of investors, is inefficient and dangerous. Many emerging economies, they say, would be well advised to swap their currencies for strong, stable, widely used ones like the dollar or euro...."

In response, the Single Global Currency Assn. wrote to Daniel Gross the following email:

Dear Mr. Gross,

   Thank you for today's column. Indeed, the case for fewer currencies is strong, and the logical conclusion of the trend is a single global currency. The remaining questions are When? and How rough will the transition be?

   I'm writing a book, "The Single Global Currency: Common Cents for the World" which builds upon the work of the economists you cited. To several of them, I've sent copies of the current manuscript, which is attached. Publication is planned for early April.

   With a single global currency, there will be no current account deficits and no currency crises and no need to retain foreign reserves and no transaction costs for foreign exchange. I estimate that the world will save approximately $400 billion per year in transaction costs and when the single global currency is implemented, the value of the world's assets will increase by $36 trillion.

   Dollarization is one route, but its major disadvantage is political as Barry Eichengreen observed in your article. As the Eurozone grows, and as other monetary unions are created, as in the Arabian Gulf, the U.S. likely will feel pressure to formally expand the formal use of the Dollar. One possibility, for example, is monetary union with Canada and Mexico, and with that will come seats on the important Federal Reserve Committees. Many economists have considered such a union.

   Perhaps a future column can explore the prospects for a single global currency? Can I send you a copy of the book upon publication? We won't be sending "advance" copies, but I could send a final .pdf file about 20 days before publication, if you would like.

   If you have the opportunity to scan or read the attached copy, which is about 90% done, I'd be interested in your comments.
Very truly yours,
morrison
morrison bonpasse

16 February 2006, The Wikipedia entry for  "Global Currency" says,

   "A global currency , in the form of a modern currency produced and supported by a central bank, like euro and dollar , will never be made. There are many fundamental problems that simply cannot be fixed. Both political problems and economicy-theoretical problems."  This entry was last updated on 15 February 2006.  It's expected that this entry will be modified as visitors respond to the writers of Wikipedia that it's wrong.

   

14 February 2006, "One World, One Dollar" Forbes Magazine, by Michael Maiello.

The article is primarily an interview with the premier champion of the single global currency, Nobel Prize winner, Robert Mundell.  An except below...

   "One of Mundell's Utopian hopes is that cooperation on currency would lead to international cooperation on other issues and enhance prospects for world peace. Having a common currency, he says, 'is like a kind of club and there are rules needed to keep it going. That has a lot of spillover effect and becomes a catalyst for other kinds of things.' "

7 February 2006.  "A common currency for East Asian nations "  by Raju Sanghwi, in India Daily.

    The world went a step ahead towards a common global currency. It is just a matter of time before the world has one currency.

    The Eastern Asian nations are going to have a common currency.

    According to media reports, the Asian Development Bank will issue an Asian currency unit (ACU) in March in an effort to boost economic cooperation between East Asian nations, People's Daily reported Feb. 6. Unlike the euro, the ACU is not a physical currency, but rather it is a form of virtual money, designed to measure the stability of currencies in the region and further boost regional economic cooperation.

17 January 2006. "The Developing World Should Abandon Parochial Currencies" by Benn Steil, in Financial Times.

An excerpted paragraph....

   Today, the best option for developing countries intent on globalising safely is simply to replace their currencies with internationally accepted ones, namely the dollar or the euro. Latin America 's star economic performer in 2004 was politically volatile Ecuador , which grew at 6.6 per cent with 2.7 per cent inflation, the lowest in 30 years.. Ecuador dollarised in 2000. If the European Union were wise, it would change its policy on extending the euro entirely and offer to assist Turkey and others in adopting it immediately.

26 December 2005.  "IMF offers to help push forward GCC monetary union"   from the Lebanon Daily Star.

The article begins...

     "ABU DHABI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has offered to help the GCC countries to push ahead with their monetary union and proposed the creation of a body similar to the European Union (EU) Eurostat Office to support this landmark project.

In a recent statement on the GCC's historic agreement to create a monetary union by 2010, the Washington-based IMF said it was optimistic about the success of the project on the grounds member states have made substantial progress in this effort and already have what it described as good macro-economical fundamentals."

[The good news is that the IMF supports the creation of the GCC monetary union.  Will it support others?  When will it address the need for a single global currency?]

 

15 December 2005.  "GCC all set for monetary union"  from the Bahrain Tribune.

The article begins...

     The signs for monetary union in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are extremely good, according to a region-wide survey by Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre (GRC) published yesterday, but there remain some concerns about the speed of preparations on a macro economic level.

   Business is overwhelmingly in favour of the move arguing it will not only be good for business but also for the GCC economy as a whole.   

   The survey findings offer GCC policymakers mixed blessings because while businesses' attitudes are predominantly positive - in stark contrast to Europe's experience in introducing the euro - there remains concern about clarity on the issues and calls for more assistance in preparing monetary transition.

   The survey also contacted policymakers, economic analysts and academics who were split on the level of preparedness.....

11 December 2005.  George F. Will's modest endorsement of the euro in Newsweek article, "2005's Kind of Progress"...

He wrote in his summary of the year...

     "The 482-page European Union 'constitution' was rejected, but the common currency marches on in white boots."

 

6 December 2005.  Poll shows English-speaking Asians have substantial support for monetary union, in article "ASEAN leaders for integrating economies, societies"  in NewKerala.com.

The article begins...

   Singapore: Leaders of some ASEAN countries feel the need to integrate their economies and societies to face the challenges posed by the growth of India and China.
    The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) would need to reposition itself to play a role in a changing world, said Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo. The rise of China and India had given this move to integrate their economies greater impetus, he said.
    An integrated region "will be more stable and ... allow ASEAN to compete", said Leo Suryadinata, a senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies.  "Otherwise, it will be difficult for ASEAN to face globalization," he said.
    Meanwhile, nearly half of people polled in some ASEAN countries backed a common currency despite wide economic disparities among the member countries.
    They want the pace of integration speeded up as ASEAN identity becomes stronger, said The Straits Times Asia Poll.
The findings signal a willingness on the part of people to accept closer integration of their economies and societies, recommended by some ASEAN leaders.
    More than 1,000 English-speaking urban residents were polled in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore. ASEAN also includes Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
    Over half of those queried said they could speak the language of another ASEAN country, 44 percent had travelled within the region, and an equal percentage expected to do so within the next six months.
    Five in 10 of those surveyed were willing to invest in another ASEAN country.
    A common currency was supported by 45 percent. Thirty-eight percent rejected the idea, and the rest were undecided.
Thailand emerged as the top destination in ASEAN for tourism, followed by Singapore.
"The results are an eye-opener," The Straits Times quoted former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino as saying.
"The people are clearly ahead of their governments. While leaders and officials are still debating the ASEAN identity issue, people-to-people links have grown over the years."
[See related article in the People's Daily, China, "Survey: ASEAN 'common currency' gaining support"]

 

4 December 2005.  "Asia: Building Blocks: At next week's East Asia Summit, there will be talk of creating a regional common market and, eventually, a single currency. Are those plausible ideas or a pipe dream?"   by Christian Caryl, Newsweek International

The article begins.....

Dec. 12, 2005 issue - Just imagine: it's a sunny winter's day in 2045, and you're arriving in Bangkok airport on the 1:15 from Shanghai. The flight is considered internal, so there's no customs check; you can keep that dark red Asian Union passport in your pocket. No need to pick up any cash, either—you've still got plenty of yuen (the single Asian currency) left over from your previous stops, including Tokyo and Seoul.....

November, 2005, "Everyone should pay in Mondos?"  An interview with Jose Cordeiro, in column by Marco Visscher in ODE Magazine, Netherlands

What's a mondo?

  “It could be the name of a new global currency that everyone on this planet could use.”

 Why would we need one?

  “It makes any national economy more reliable, because there will be no more uncertainty about currency rates, rates of return, interest rates, devaluation, etc. Did you know that every day $1.8 trillion U.S. is traded internationally? We spend billions of dollars on speculation and transaction costs, on a daily basis! One global currency would mean a lot of cost-saving.”

These do not sound like major global problems that need immediate fixing.

  “Countries with more fluctuation in their currencies show less economic development, about two percent less. If we can introduce a global currency, poor countries wouldn't pay so much to keep these national currencies, and their economies would grow more. Believe me, the poor will benefit more from a single global currency.”

 Don't you think people are just attached to their old coins and bills?

  “In Africa , Latin America and parts of Asia —which is to say, most of the world—people would love to give up their national currency and replace it with the dollar, or the euro, or the yen, because they don't trust their own national currency.”

So what are we waiting for?

  “For national governments to give up their privilege to print money whenever they need some extra money. And for the insight that it's just stupid to have all those different currencies. Why not then have a currency for your own village, or even for your family? Maybe you'd like one for yourself! That would be a disaster, right? It's simply more convenient to have a single currency for everyone. While all these different currencies made sense at a time when there wasn't so much traveling and when economies were not as integrated as they are now, it's simply inevitable that we need more common standards in a globalized world.”

José Luis Cordeiro is an economist who teaches at the Central University of Venezuela and consults with various companies and organizations. He's founder of the Venezuelan chapter of the World Future Society, and sits on the board of advisors of the Single Global Currency Association.

 

28 November 2005.  "Abandoning The Euro Would Have High Cost, Says S&P Report"   from Axcess News.

The article begins....

   (AXcess News) New York - According to a recent report by Standard & Poor's, abandoning the Euro would have high costs for some sovereigns and adversly affect their credit ratings. If they favored going back to national currencies it could lower their credit ratings two to four notches, the U.S. rating agency said.

   The report entitled "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Rating Implications Of EU States Abandoning The Euro" found that lower-rated EMU sovereigns with weaker fiscal profiles would diminish their creditworthiness in the unlikely event that they left Economic Monetary Union.

[See also related report from Moody's about risk and the Eurozone.

"Moody’s highlights risks for the European Union" from the "Financial Mirror)

 

26 November 2005.  "Slovakia moves closer to adopting euro by linking up"   from the Shanghai Daily.

The article begins....

     SLOVAKIA became the seventh of the European Union's newest members to move closer to adopting the euro by establishing formal links with the common currency, a move the central bank said will help keep the koruna stable.

    The EU said in a statement from Brussels it admitted Slovakia to its exchange-rate mechanism effective from today. The Slovak koruna will be pegged at 38.4550 to the euro under the regime, compared with Friday's close of 38.47.

    The peg starts a test of currency stability before euro adoption, which Slovakia is targeting in 2009. The government chose to enter the exchange-rate mechanism earlier than the original plan for the first half of 2006 to make the koruna less vulnerable to movements in other east European currencies, the central bank said.

    "The 2009 target is still in place, but we view the entry to the mechanism as another way of how to ensure the stability of the exchange rate," Governor Ivan Sramko said in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, on Saturday.

    The mechanism, one of five tests for would-be euro members, requires each country to keep its currency within 15 percent of a central rate to the euro for two years without devaluing....

 

22 November 2005.  In the article, "Make hay while the sun shines, says Mboweni", South African Reserve Bank Governor Mboweni announced goal of African Monetary union by 2025, in the Mail & Guardian.

Excerpts...

   Rather than worry about how to get growth going, people should be worrying how to make the most of a South African economy that is "pumping", South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni said on Monday....

    "The central bank governors of the African Union have a target of achieving monetary union by 2025. This target has the tacit approval of most governments, but in order to achieve that union, we must agree on convergence criteria, such as fiscal deficits to GDP ratios and low inflation rates," Mboweni said.

21 November 2005.  "Hungary Bank Official Urges on Euro"  from MSN Moneyat MSN.com

The article begins...

    BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Hungary should implement reforms and adopt the European Union's common currency as soon as possible, the country's central bank president said Monday.

    Hungary's growing budget deficits have cast doubts on its plans to switch to the euro in 2010. EU officials have said Hungary could lose access to the bloc's infrastructure funding if it fails to take advice on its economy.

    National Bank of Hungary President Zsigmond Jarai said that while it was not impossible to reach the 2010 target date, the 2005-06 state budgets showed no signs that the government was planning essential reforms.

    "I believe we are increasingly headed in the wrong direction," Jarai was quoted as saying by state news agency MTI. "The further we are from the goal, the bigger the task will be and the bigger the needed adjustments."

    The government has announced a 2006 budget gap target of 6.1 percent of gross domestic product, compared with a 3 percent EU limit for countries using the euro. The central bank has estimated a gap of 8.9 of GDP for next year, while the EU forecast is 6.7 percent.

 

18 November 2005.  Korea Exchange Bank Chairman urges Asian Common Currency, among other reforms in "Citibank CEO Warns of 2nd Asian Crisis Due to Slow Reforms"   in Korea Times by Kim

Sung-jin

excerpts....

   Citibank chairman William R. Rhodes Friday advised the Asian economies to resume efforts on reforming the financial sector, warning the slow pace of reforms may trigger another financial crisis in the region....

    Korea Exchange Bank chairman Robert E. Fallon pointed out that Asian savings that flow into bank deposits is an opportunity. This flow will either let bank deposits migrate to mutual funds or compel bank deposits to go from low demand loans to funding enterprises via venture capital, mezzanine finance or private equity...

    Fallon proposed establishing a common currency in the Asian economic bloc, billed an as one solution to fostering the Asian financial market...

    Institute for International Economics senior fellow Edward M. Graham backed Fallon¡'s suggestion.

    Graham said the emergence of a common currency would bring about a positive development in the Asian bond market, which is underdeveloped compared to the European bond market.

 

17 November 2005.  SAARC Business meertings: "Intra-regional trade can touch $14 billion: PM"  from Newindpress.com

Excerpts relating to a regional common currency for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation....

   "....NEW DELHI: Interlinkages between the comity of SAARC nations at all levels is of utmost significance to increase intra-regional investment, prime minister Manmohan Singh said while inaugurating the SAARC Business Leaders Conclave organised jointly by FICCI and the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here on Thursday...

    ...Macky Hashim, president, SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sri Lanka, outlined the objective of the conclave and stated that it is to emancipate SAARC of poverty by making it the fastest growing economic region in the world and to prepare member states for a common South Asian Market.

    Among other objectives are to have a common currency, to make a South Asian Union like the EU, to develop an enabling environment for higher intra-regional investment, to promote South Asia as a common investment destination for the rest of the world and to increase employment opportunities within the region."

 

7 November 2005. "Single currency will climax Asia's economic integration" In a column echoing his 25 October speech, below, in Manila,   Haruhiko Kuroda restates his support of an Asian common currency. He is the head of the Asian Development Bank.

Excerpts....

  ...The key to continuing and expanding this growth and lifting more people out of poverty lies in regional cooperation and integration. Only through working together can Asian countries unlock their vast economic potential...
  I have taken a somewhat different view and have argued that our long run objective should be the creation of an Asian monetary union with a single currency.

  I continue to believe that Asia in general, and East Asia in particular, should strive to form a monetary union in the long run.

6 November 2005. "Middle East Takes Center Stage In Currency Markets"

excerpts...

LONDON — The Middle East could set the tone for currencies in 2006 as traders mull what the region will do with the swelling dollar-denominated oil revenues it has accumulated over recent months. 
   Any hint that key accounts in the region could seek to offload dollars and shift into other major currencies like the euro could put the greenback under pressure after its recent bull run....

   The International Monetary Fund's recent semiannual World Economic Outlook Report estimated that Opec's current account surplus could reach $337 billion by 2006, compared with $362 in Asia.

   That firmly puts the Middle East in the same league as Asian central banks - heavy hitters in the currency markets because of their vast dollar holdings. Traders and analysts routinely scrutinise every word from Asian central bank officials for signs of currency skittishness, and the markets can move dramatically on apparent shifts in sentiment.

 

4 November 2005. "IMF Article IV consultation with Estonia."

The report begins with "Background"....

  Estonia has made extraordinary progress following independence. Sound macroeconomic policies and far-reaching structural reforms have resulted in the successful establishment of a market economy and EU membership. The country is witnessing a remarkable convergence in real terms to EU levels, with purchasing power parity per capita income increasing to 46 percent of the EU15 level. Estonia has also achieved significant nominal convergence, meeting all of the Maastricht criteria, save for inflation. Estonia entered ERM II in late June 2004, unilaterally maintaining its peg to the euro with a currency board arrangement, and is aiming at early euro adoption.

 

31 October 2005. "Turkey is close to meeting Maastricht criteria, says report" From Turkish Daily news, online

The article begins...

   Turkey's economy is benefiting from improved financial and political stability and the country is moving towards meeting the Maastricht criteria, the conditions required to join the European Monetary Union, according to a report issued by Morgan Stanley economist Serhan Çevik.

    Along with a 30 percent increase in real GDP in the past four years, Turkey has succeeded in dropping inflation from an average of 77.5 percent in the 1990s to the single digits on a sustainable basis, creating a positive feedback loop to growth dynamics.

 

27 October 2005. "Bernanke on the Record" from Business Week

Excerpt on the Euro...

     Bernanke holds a positive view of the eurozone's experience with a single currency. Look at this from "The Euro" (June, 2004): "... [I]t seems safe to conclude that the common currency has had and will continue to have large benefits for European finance. At a minimum, the single currency eliminates exchange-rate risks that exist when securities are denominated in different currencies. The single unit of account seems also likely to reduce transaction costs and eliminate a portion of the fixed costs involved in issuing similar securities in multiple currencies. These factors are already serving to moderate home bias in borrowing and lending, leading to larger, more liquid, and more diversified financial markets."

 

27 October 2005.  "Diplomatic momentum of the Pacific Island Forum" from "The National", Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea.

The article begins...

THE Pacific Island Forum (PIF) meeting now underway in Port Moresby denotes the beginning of a more coherent approach to regional integration.
Issues on the table include a Pacific Parliament, common currency, economic integration, a Pacific treaty of compliance to principles and obligations and common defence.

26 October 2005. "Asia should move forward to monetary union: ADB"  from www.xinhuanet.com

  MANILA, Oct. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Asia should achieve the monetary union with a single currency in long run, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday.

    During a speech at a forum, Kuroda said Asia in general, and East Asia in particular, should strive to form a monetary union in the long run.

    Although as the fastest growing region in the world for several decades, Asia still shows an enormous disparity in income levels, living standards, and socioeconomic conditions as well as homes almost two thirds of the world's poor, Kuroda said.

    "In a region of such dynamic growth, this is simply unacceptable," he added.

    The president said that given the magnitude of intra-regional trade, even small exchange rate misalignments can disturb trade and investment flows and create trade friction among the region's economies. "This indicates the need for intra-regional exchange rate stabilization in the years to come, and ultimately a single currency."

 

20 October 2005. "Estonia's Ansip Says Euro Entry Will Accelerate Economic Growth "   by Alistair Holloway at Forbes.

The article begins...

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said adopting the euro in 2007 will add 1 percentage point a year to economic growth, spur foreign investment and boost tourism.

The former Soviet republic on the Baltic Sea, which joined the EU in 2004, will switch to Europe's common currency in 14 months with Slovenia and Lithuania. The local currency, the kroon is locked in the exchange-rate mechanism, the system that tests currency stability before the changeover....

 

18 October 2005. What Non-Governmental Organizations can do to change the world: "Group: Chad, Bangladesh are most corrupt" from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer - News of Transparency International

The article begins...

LONDON -- Bangladesh and Chad were ranked most corrupt on a global watchdog group's annual list of corruption levels in 159 nations, released Tuesday. At the other end of the scale, Iceland was ranked least corrupt.

Corruption undermines efforts to eradicate poverty, with graft by public officials hampering attempts to raise the living standards of the poor, Transparency International said.

 

18 October 2005. "Global Power Shift from West to East in Making" by James F. Hoge, in the Seoul Times, reprinted from the magazine, Foreign Affairs.

excerpts...

  Other Southeast Asian states are steadily integrating their economies into a large web through trade and investment treaties. Unlike in the past, however, China — not Japan or the United States — is at the hub.

  The members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), finally, are seriously considering a monetary union. The result could be an enormous trade bloc, which would account for much of Asia's — and the world's — economic growth.

[emphasis added]

16 October 2005. Klaus Liebscher: "The European monetary union and the euro - a contribution to international stability"  from the Bank for International Settlements

Excerpt...

The firm commitment of the euro system – as the European Central Bank and the 12 National Central Banks from the Member States of the euro area are called – to pursuing price stability as its main objective remains a key factor behind market confidence in the euro as a global and stable currency. Since the euro system became responsible for monetary policy in 1999, the primary objective of maintaining price stability has been successfully pursued. Inflation volatility has stabilized – the average inflation rate being around 2% over the past years – in spite of major inflationary shocks and although oil prices have quadrupled and the economic environment is difficult right now, inflation expectations still remain low. This reflects the high confidence of the public as well as the financial markets in the euro. European Union in order to ultimately adopt the euro, this has so far led to an impressive record of macroeconomic stability as well as exchange rate stability on their way to EMU.

 

12 October 2005. "From the euro to the globo"  by Hamid Golpira, Tehran Times.

Concerned about privatization of central banks, the article begins...

   Globalization is leading to a global economy with one world currency. It's not clear what the name of this global currency unit will be, but perhaps it will be called the globo.

   The adoption of the euro by 12 European Union states is part of the process of creating the globo. The U.S. dollar and the euro are currently the two strongest hard currencies in the world. They may eventually be merged to create the globo...

 

12 October 2005.  From the United Nations, 2005 World Economic and Social Survey: "UN report says donors should focus on quality of aid to foster development"

Excerpt...

  In addition, international aid donors need to better manage the “strongly cyclical patterns of their financial flows” that can wreak “harmful economic side effects” on developing countries,” and countries should borrow in their own currency so that they won't be adversely affected by huge variances in world currency exchanges, he [Mr. Jose Antonio Ocampo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs] added.  [emphasis added by SGCA]

 

5 October 2005. "Campaign for creation of South Asian Economic Union intensified"   from XINHUA.net

Excerpts...

DHAKA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- A number of member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will intensify campaign for creation of a South Asian Economic Union in the region during the 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka next month...

  Bangladesh, however, expressed the view that there are certain steps to be implemented before formation of the economic union. Those steps are establishment of a free trade area, customs union, monetary union and a common market...

4 October 2005.  "Renewal of African Financial Systems for Efficiency Recommended " from the Addis Ababa Tribune.

Excerpts...

   The Acting Secretary General of the OAU, Ambassador Lawrence Agubuzu has called for the renewal of African financial systems in order to better mobilize for greater and efficient allocation of financial resources on the continent.

   The Acting Secretary General also stated that the efforts were in conformity with the necessary measures for the establishment of the African Monetary Union which were provided for in the treaty establishing the African Economic Community, and which were further underscored at the extraordinary summit of the Heads of State and government of the OAU held in Sirte, Lybia, last year. The treaty inter-alia called for the establishment of African economic community, the African Monetary Union and the African Central Bank which are expected to underpin the African Union, whose constitutive act was signed during the recent summit in Lome, Togo. ...

 

30 September 2005. Australia's Federal Labour Party announces  "Toward a Pacific Community"  initiative, which includes recommendation for Common Currency: the Australian dollar.

Specifically...

    A regional commitment to inflation targeting, and assistance to

    those Pacific countries that may wish to adopt the Australian

    dollar.
[For another view, see ABC Online, "ALP calls for EU-style Pacific community" with an excerpt...

The paper calls for a treaty, setting up a 'Pacific Community', similar to the European Union, that would include a Pacific Parliament, a special Court, and see the Australian dollar adopted as the common currency for Pacific Island nations.]

29 September 2005.  Letter to Editor, South China Morning Post: "Bermuda Lawn"  by Tony Henderson of Hong Kong.

It's critical of the Single Global Currency, but, Excerpts....

  Now the merits of the single universal currency when paraded for consideration are very clear to the logical mind: no currency speculation, no commissions on currency exchanges, no currency black market, no inflation-deflation worries, steady interest rates. Or so it might seem!

  A further merit of any total monetary union is touted along the lines of the value of the currency being separate from the economic health and governing finances of any one member country and in fact being separate from the general state of world health.

  [The Single Global Currency Assn. responded with a "Letter to the Editor" that begins, "In response to Tony Henderson's 29 September letter about the single global currency, I agree that multiple currencies are charming, but so are the postal stamps of the countries of the world.

The major problem with having multiple currencies is that the system costs the world hundreds of billions of euros a year, and the risks of another regional currency crisis, if not a world currency crisis, loom large."]

29 September 2005.  "A common currency: Maybe now's the time"  by Terence Corcoran in the Financial Post (Canada)

Excerpts....

...  Except, of course, for all the people who are thinking about the stupidity of the impact of our floating exchange rate on the economy. That would include Jim Stanford, chief economist at the Canadian Auto Workers, and a slew of other business people and economists who are pointing to risks of currency-induced economic turmoil....

  ...There is no particular reason people should be laughing at the idea of a common Canada-U.S. currency. The Dutch disease is a product of a separate currency regime and shifting currency values. How to avoid it? A common currency would provide part of the answer....

  ... It would be foolish to minimize the complexity of currency reform and common currency issues. But wild swings in the loonie, recorded in the chart above, point to a currency regime that's as much of a problem as it is a solution. The dollar could crash if energy prices shifted directions next year, forcing another series of dramatic economic adjustments. None of this is funny.

 

28 September 2005. "Credit where credit is due"  by 'Buttonwood', in the Economist.

Interesting article about bond prices and debt in a monetary union, the EMU, whre one paragraph states...

It was not always thus, as the chart below shows. Before monetary union in Europe, the yield on the Italian government's ten-year bonds could be more than 650 basis points higher than that on Germany's, over which the rigorous Bundesbank kept watch. That gap narrowed sharply when currency risk disappeared, a big new euromarket reduced trading costs, a single central bank took charge of interest rates and monetary membership rules promoted unwonted fiscal discipline.

 

27 September 2005. "EA bourse will have to await a common currency"  By ESTHER NAKKAZI in "The East African"

The article begins...

  Plans to set up a regional stock exchange for the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania by 2007 have been deferred until the region realises a regional monetary currency.

Officials from the Capital Markets Authority in Uganda said last week that the joint stockmarket for the region was unlikely to become operational until the East African Community has a single currency, which is envisaged to be in use by 2010.

24 September 2005.  "US in call for reform of IMF voting"  by Andrew Balls, Financial Times.

The article about allocation of IMF governance begins...

The US on Friday called for reform of the International Monetary Fund's weighted voting system and appeared to hint at the need for a single European Union seat on the IMF's board.

 

22 September 2005. "Is Asian Common Currency Feasible?"  By Yoon Deok-ryong in The Korea Times.

An excerpt reads....

Due to the given restrictions in establishing a regional exchange rate system, an Asian common currency could be another consideration. Though a common currency usually comes at the final stage of financial and monetary cooperation to substitute national currencies, it could be introduced at the beginning of the integration process as a reference money and take the role of numeraire.

19 September 2005. "GCC: Full steam ahead to monetary union"  From AME Info FZ.

The article begins....

The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)) took a step closer to monetary union last week as central bankers agreed the text associated with fiscal and monetary targets agreed in March.

 

13 September 2005. From Malta - "NECC launch website on changeover to Euro"  by Sarah Suda, Di-Ve News

  VALLETTA, Malta: The National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC) has launched a provisional website with the aim to inform the public about the changeover to Euro.

  This website, is part of the initial stages of the campaign of the NECC to diffuse information on the European Monetary Union and the Euro. The site also contains information on the process leading to the adoption of the euro and the strategy adopted by Malta to reach this goal.

9 September 2005.  Joseph Stiglitz does not support Asian common currency. See article: "Economist warns of slowdown of SE Asian economies as interest rates rise" in Peoples' Daily, Online.

Excerpts...

  ...On the issue of a common currency for Asia, the former World Bank chief economist refused to give support for the idea, but encouraged more monetary cooperation in the region like forming an Asian Monetary Fund.

  "The issue of a common currency requires a lot of similarities between the countries because when you have a common currency, you give up an instrument, you give up an independent monetary policy, " he said, adding that Asia is not ready for it....

 

8 September 2005.  On coordinating fiscal policies within a monetary union: "Eurozone states urged to liaise on budgets" by Ralph Atkins and George Parker, Financial Times.
The article begins...

Eurozone countries could boost the effectiveness of the currency union by unveiling their national budgets around the same date and by using the same economic forecasts, according to a member of the European Central Bank's executive board....

 

8 September 2005. "New GCC common currency on target"

by Tariq Konji, Gulf Daily News, Bahrain

The article begins...

  THE GCC may have a common currency much earlier than the 2010 deadline, according to predictions by a top bank. Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank, part of the Credit Agricole Group, believes the GCC central banks have all the tools in place to let the project move ahead sooner than initially anticipated.

  But the real issue is whether or not the currency will be pegged to the US dollar, according to Gulf capital markets executive director and treasurer Elyas Al Gaseer.

  "We believe that the GCC currency will be launched sooner than initially planned and that the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency will take the lead because it is the best equipped bank to do so. It has all the supervisory tools in place," he said.

  "We also believe that it would be wrong for the currency to be pegged to the dollar. Instead, the dollar peg should be replaced with a trade-weighted basket of currencies."

6 September 2005. Speech: "Malcolm Knight: Challenges to financial stability in the current global macroeconomic environment " Speech by Malcolm Knight, General Manager of the BIS, at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC

Excerpt...

  "It is hard to escape the conclusion that the world today is characterised by an unusual, perhaps unprecedented, combination of financial imbalances , both domestic (internal) and international (external). ..

  As to external financial imbalances , the current account deficit of the United States has been trending upwards as a percentage of GDP for over 20 years, and now stands at nearly 6% of GDP. Moreover, the net service account has finally shifted into negative territory, partly reflecting the fact that the United States, the world's richest country, is now also its biggest international debtor....

  But this brings us to the third question. What harm might be done should any or all of these imbalances unwind? One possibility could be a sudden crisis in the financial system, though where and when an overextended system might fail is impossible to predict. I think another possibility is much more likely. If the overseas demand for US dollar assets were to slow markedly, for whatever reason, the US dollar would depreciate, world interest rates would rise, and the prices of a number of classes of financial and real assets would weaken. All these adjustments would likely be highly deflationary at the global level. In this case, an extended period of slow global growth could ensue, reinforced and lengthened by an erosion of the capital of financial institutions and other market participants that would sharply curtail their willingness to supply credit. We have observed such “headwinds” so many times in the past that even an economist would have to admit they are possible...

  What's the bottom line of my luncheon talk? There is no free lunch. Times are good, but they may not “roll on” without encountering some potholes. Acting early to redress the major financial imbalances I have talked about could limit their potential adverse consequences. I, for one, believe this is food for thought."

[In response, the Single Global Currency Association wrote to Mr. Knight an email on 17 September 2005, to recommend the single global currency as the solution to some of the problems he described in his speech.]

 

5 September 2005. "Czech PM Prefers Euro Adoption In 2010 Not 2009"  by Leos Rousek, Dow Jones News

   PRAGUE -(Dow Jones)- Czech Prime Minister Jari Paroubek Monday said the government is likely to adopt the European Union common currency, the euro, in 2010 rather than 2009.

  "I'm thinking that at the meeting of the government likely to be held in November I will support as the date for adopting the euro Jan. 1, 2010," Paroubek said at a news conference after meeting Czech central bank senior officials.

   Paroubek said that adopting the euro in 2010 rather than 2009, which was the earlier target considered, would also fit better with the country's election calendar.

 

5 September 2005. New Zealand Poll Results: "Government urged to balance growth with social goals"   by Brian Fallow, New Zealand Herald

Excerpts..

  Asked whether New Zealand should seek to adopt a common currency with Australia if there is a net economic benefit to New Zealand, 62 per cent said yes, 31 per cent no and 8 per cent were unsure.

   Respondents were split between doing it by adopting the Aussie dollar or having a combined Anzac dollar. Eight per cent held out somewhat quixotically for having the kiwi dollar as the combined currency.

  This is stronger support than the 60 per cent backing a common currency in a mid-year poll by Business New Zealand.

  Of the political parties, Labour, New Zealand First, the Greens, the Progressives and the Maori Party all oppose currency union.

  United Future says yes, but only if the net economic benefit to New Zealand is clear. Act is open to the idea but notes that it would mean giving away having our own monetary policy to manage inflation.

  National says it has no firm policy on this but wants the idea explored.

  Back when the issue was widely debated in 1999/2000, Don Brash, then Governor of the Reserve bank, was on the unenthusiastic side and equivocal about the idea.

  It would reduce transaction costs and reduce uncertainty for companies trading with Australia, but it would not stop the big swings in other exchange rates, he said.

  And it would mean interest rates that were chosen for conditions across the Tasman. "It may well be that that would suit us extremely well, but conversely it may be that it would not suit us at all well."

2 September 2005.  "WAMZ meeting ends in Accra"

The Accra Daily Mail article begins...

  The Technical and Convergence Council meeting of the West African Monetary Zone today ends in Accra. Delegates from the five-member countries of the Zone are attending the four-day meeting. Member countries are The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

  The meeting discusses an Action Plan of the WAMZ work programme, efforts at creating a customs union for the Zone, ratification and domestication of three crucial statutes of the WAMZ and proposals for a more dynamic institutional support to the monetary integration embarked on by the five countries.

Members of the five countries have committed themselves to adopt the Eco as their common currency in 2009.....

1 September 2005. "Hungarian Economy Expected to Expand"

Excerpt from the Forbes Magazine article...

     Hungary, which joined the European Union last year, has targeted 2010 for adopting the EU's common currency, the euro.