“The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect”

Stacy Summary:  I know this Gulf currency has been rumored for quite a while; but it seems to be gathering some momentum.  At least in the news.  Your thoughts?  Good thing?  Bad thing?  Unlikely?  Likely?  Threat to the dollar?

The Gulf states remain divided over the wisdom of anchoring their economies to the US dollar. The Gulf currency – dubbed “Gulfo” – is likely to track a global exchange basket and may ultimately float as a regional reserve currency in its own right. “The US dollar has failed. We need to delink,” said Nahed Taher, chief executive of Bahrain’s Gulf One Investment Bank.

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68 Responses to “The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect”

  1. The reason why Saddam was attacked was because he tried to trade oil in Euro and persuaded other countries to do it.

    Unsure of what outcome this action will invite.

  2. US corporation uses the dollar to do bad things. Destroy the dollar and they will not be able to do so much damage. It’s better to follow our constitution rather than some depraved elites deranged ideas for world domination. The key is the dollar. Honest lawful money is the answer. Look up the definition of money in Black’s 6th edition legal dictionary. Money does not include notes. Federal Reserve notes are not money.

  3. The name of the currency is the Khaleeji

  4. The UK has come under “de facto” control of the IMF, albeit not admitting it. Alistar Darlings pre-budget, with increased taxes and severe budget cuts will not contain the rise in the public debt spiral because of its support of the City. So far the taxpayers are in for some Euro 900 million to support UK banks—roll on the revolution

  5. Nahed Taher better watch his mouth. We have a base in Bahrain, too. I hear it’s a small base (my new brother-in-law is there), but still.

  6. @RedZebra – The charts the Phil UK posted are vaild. I’ve spent 3 weeks looking at this data and have come to the conclusion that I’ve been wrong in believing that global warming is CO2 induced. I feel like a f*cking fool but its not surprising when the data from CRU was so damn twisted. CRU should hang their heads in shame at trying to cover up declines in proxy temperature data that show a fall in temp.

  7. Gulf Currency is akin to a gift card, except the retailer has control over inflation and the value of the gift cards at any given time. It’s only a matter of time before someone abuses the powers of a gulf currency akin to Goldman Sachs’ high frequency trading.

    It protects the gulf from wall street, but it doesn’t protect the gulf from themselves.

  8. ITs probably time for a new War now. Hopey has just sent 85,000 new troops including ‘contractors’ to Afghanistan. Now that every Muslim wants to trade out of dollars we will need some new propaganda to start the attack on Iran or Pakistan.

  9. Denninger on Bernanke & GCC

    http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1740-Calling-The-Time-Person-Of-The-Year-Jackass.html

    …a failure to reject Bernanke for a second term – will result in the acceleration of action by China and The Gulf States. Before Bernanke’s next term expires you will see the dollar decoupled and left in the sand as the former anchor of global trade. You will see import prices in dollar terms – especially oil and similar commodities – skyrocket. You will see the destruction of America’s way of life.

  10. This another step towards regional governments, paving the way for the one world government so desperately wanted by the financial oligarchs, not least the Rothchilds.

    But the struggles now being seen in the Euro region are proof this “New World Order” won’t work. The Gulf states need to dump the dollar but not in this way.

    When the dollar does eventually collapse, look out for desperate calls for the new Amero currency to “save” us all.

  11. Why shouldn’t they do it. I wonder what people like Jim Rogers thinks about this? I’ve heard that lately he’s been making a lot of trips to the MIddle East.

  12. Seminal work by BIS on regional currencies (2003):

    http://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap17.pdf?noframes=1

  13. warburg sidney

    green again, thanks a lot.
    I´ll look into this alan watt statement, being a (classical) musician the subject interests me. Anyway to see the 12-tone music of schoenberg, berg and webern as social engineered goes to far…
    But the beatles is very well possible and having this asshole of adorno involved is outraging….

  14. SS Himmler’s Castle Wewelsburg – The Occult Conspiracy – Nazi UFO’S http://tinyurl.com/y8tqkjb

    @Phil and other German Speakin – Loads of Interesting Docu German spoken vids (No Subs) also beside the English ones.

    ” Die Wewelsburg – Das weltanschauliche Zentrum der SS” and

    “Mythos Neu-Schwabenland ” about Nazi UFO’s!

  15. “The Arab states of the Gulf region have agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro”

    “The Gulf states remain divided over the wisdom of anchoring their economies to the US dollar. The Gulf currency – dubbed “Gulfo” – is likely to track a global exchange basket and may ultimately float as a regional reserve currency in its own right. “The US dollar has failed. We need to delink,” said Nahed Taher, chief executive of Bahrain’s Gulf One Investment Bank.”

    Those two statement by Ambrose seem incongruous. A global exchange basket peg (sdr) is not the same condition as the euro which is included in the dollar value index basket. Africa Development Bank has a pegged unit to the sdr.

    GCC must want inclusion in the sdr basket. The fact that Ambrose ignores this fact is telling.

  16. anything but green.again

    @ warburg sidney

    Sorry. Ages ago I spent a lot of energy looking into what I thought was a relatively simple “perception” topic, the fake Paul McCartney (as an easy example of in-your-face cons we rarely notice because we’re just not that interested and don’t see what the big deal’s all about); lots of heavy stuff came out, more than I cared to contemplate. The Beatles fairytale doesn’t stand up to even superficial examination, just in terms of logistics. It’s like the photographer studying NASA photos of moon landings, and discovering that there were too many photos, regardless of content. The devil’s in the details. And of course the more I dug, the puppet Beatles faded; instead a highly-orchestrated military intelligence op came into view. And Adorno surfaced. It was difficult to find anything concrete; solid info revealing the real culture creation industry is thoroughly suppressed; nevertheless I found info about the ownership of the Beatles music (not sure what kind of rights now) and how they went up for auction when Adorno or his wife died, in 1984 (?), and how the fake Paul and spook Ono were supposed to team up to grab them, except Ono did the dirty on Faul Paul–something like that.

    Just now I did a search, and came up empty–only the usual fake histories. A common theme when trying to research suss figures is the dearth of concrete info despite the mountains of publications supposedly telling all. We know next to nothing about who give us our culture. They certainly aren’t the wind-up puppets performing on the stage.

  17. Heres a very interesting set of charts which would help anyone to get some perspective on Climate Change.

    http://www.rense.com/general88/warming.htm

  18. @Stacey

    The Arab states of the Gulf region have agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro

    How can Ambrose of all people write that article?

    Is there no more euro-bashing to do? What the heaven is going on?

  19. Close enough eh? Jeezus… are we all Al Gore now? Yes, nice link-trolling Youri. Fan-f-ing-tastic.

  20. anything but green.again

    @ Youri

    That spoof was too close to reality. This should give you another laugh, except it’s not a spoof–now we have to worry about “tree mortality”!

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/16/another-al-gore-reality-check-%E2%80%9Crising-tree-mortality%E2%80%9D/#more-14222

  21. @Youri — for fecksake… you posted a story from “The Spoof” — at the bottom it says “The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious” and you presented it as real.

    LESS QUANTITY. MORE QUALITY.

    #@%&#@%&!!@#%&!!!!!!

  22. http://www.oecd.org/document/58/0,2340,en_2649_33731_2737210_1_1_1_1,00.html

    Helmet Reisen, the author of the link from the previous post, is the director of OECD: the management link for sovereign wealth funds representing the IMF:

    http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/2610/Sovereign_wealth_funds.html

  23. “In order to make the SDR the principal reserve asset via allocation, close to $3 trillion in SDRs would need to be created. Onno Wijnholds (2009) has thus suggested a so-called SDR Substitution Account. The idea is to permit countries whose official dollar holdings are larger than they desire to convert dollars into Special Drawing Rights. Conversion would occur outside the market and thus would not put downward pressure on the dollar. This suggestion, however, requires settling who will bear the exchange (dollar) risk as the SDR Substitution Account is likely to mostly hold dollars as assets.”

    IMF gold “sales” are to support this functionality exchange of dollars for sdr, IMO.

    http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3672/

    “Another step to enhance the role of the SDR is to make its currency composition more neutral to global cycles and more representative of the shift in economic power witnessed over the last two decades. This implies an increase in the commodity content and the inclusion of major emerging-market currencies. Today, the SDR is constituted as a basket of four fiat monies. To the extent that free convertibility is required for inclusion into the SDR composite, the Australian, Canadian, Chilean and Norwegian currencies could be included to give the SDR a link to the raw material cycles, as these currencies proxy price developments of copper, iron ore, gold, and oil. Major emerging-country currencies would be included in the SDR mix as soon as they reach a predefined level of convertibility.
    Other avenues to better the reach of the SDR as a reserve asset are to improve its trade invoice and vehicle functions. Pilot programmes such as the Real/Renminbi deal mentioned above could be extended as could regional currency arrangements; the proviso is that they should not introduce friction and higher transaction costs into regional and global trade. IMF bonds issued in SDR are already much in demand, reflecting concerns about the dollar, and will enhance its store of value function.”

  24. ‘Oman withdrew from the monetary union saying it cannot meet convergence prerequisites, while the United Arab Emirates pulled out after the GCC picked the Saudi capital Riyadh as the base for the future central bank.’

    http://www.br.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5286357

    The American corporate interests have undo influence through the Saudis. The jist is not one of sovereign jockeying, but of the G20-coalition move to sdr-based trade vehicles. IMO.

    Geithththner has already indicated his agreement to move away from the dollar as reserve for sdr.

    The unwinding of Talf in June and the demise in 2008 of the securitization-based economy in the US will see great economic distress in the US. Depegging oil price from the dollar is a given. (I wonder why this site has not discussed the relative stability of the oil price in 2009: what is the function? Is the question being generated concerning oil price mute: has the oil been traded in sdr already? It’s odd. Is the question when and how rather than why, and why is the term sdr not used once in the article?)

    “To combine the advantages of multiple and single currency systems, a basket-based reserve system, perhaps built on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), could be envisaged. The SDR is not a currency; it takes its value from its constituent currencies (currently, the US dollar, euro, pound sterling, and yen, but the basket is periodically reviewed), and this makes it more stable: if one of its constituent currencies depreciates, the share of the others in the basket rises proportionately, dampening the volatility of the basket. However, for the SDR to take on such a significant role, its liquidity would need to increase massively. While an increase in demand (from BRIC central banks) and supply of SDR assets (from the Fund) have recently materialized, the scale remains limited–about 4 percent of global reserves. Generating a liquid SDR market of the size needed to create a new reserve currency would be a major undertaking.”

    Are those in control planning a truly liquid global market or a monopolized post-industrial world: that is the question. I believe the latter.

  25. re: the telegraph article on climate change being man-made.

    “Political analyst Jim McConalogue, who wrote the report,…”

    Political analyst ???!!

  26. Bernake named ‘Time’ magazine- Person of the Year…

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BF20920091216

  27. Let’s see we have the Euro and the proposed Gulfo and Amero. Considering that paper fiat money is just a form of control for the elite bankers and also considering their ironic sense of humor about naming things given to us to use like the World Wide Web, Cell Phones and T.V. and computer programs, let’s just go with the one world currency and call it the Dumbo. Or will Disney complain about copyright infringement?

  28. @dan valley .. that may be , but I’m waiting for the “Word of the Year” as is always publicized in Germany

    It probably won’t be “Bankster”, as that is not “German” … or is it ?
    ;-)

  29. Along with all the raw data that was deleted by the University of East Angela which showed that global temperatures have actually dropped over the last ten years, thus proving that man made global warming was a scam; Al Gore also has also had his carbon credit scheme stolen in an email. The message, which was included in the other emails that were stolen, or leaked by a whistleblower (depending on your point of view) from the University of East Angela in the Climategate scandal, showed how Al was setting up the scam by merely creating the carbon credits out of thin air, just like the derivatives bubble created credit out of thin air – loaning out many times the amount of monies that were actually deposited in the banks.

    This time, Al was proposing the creation of 5000 carbon credits for every one carbon credit in real trees actually planted. The scheme was set to make Al even richer than he already has become with all the fear mongering about man made global warming that he has been pedalling, ever since he failed to become US president.

    Now that the fact that he was going to market out many times the amount of actual trees he had planted has been leaked, many others are diving in while the propaganda and fear mongering about global warming still has some people living in a deluded bed wetting, knee shaking version of reality where it is all real and if they don’t give all their money, rights and jobs to the globalists tomorrow, they’ll die by flooding the very next day.

    Al Gore Looses His Carbon Credits in a Stolen Climategate Email to Copenhagen http://tinyurl.com/ydyr26w

  30. Time names bernake person of the year

  31. Iberdrola chief warns over green power – Energy Prices Will Rise http://tinyurl.com/yzflwo3

    Sotheby’s, Christie’s Contemporary-Art Sales Total Drops 75% http://tinyurl.com/yg6tnw7

    Abu Dhabi Investment Fund Seeks to End Citigroup Share Purchase http://tinyurl.com/ylbbert

    Dubai Said to Have Sold Abu Dhabi Bonds at 4% Return http://tinyurl.com/yh7jmnp

    Dubai Reminds Some Edinburgh Funds Crisis Persists http://tinyurl.com/yfpb2q2

    ECB Lends Banks 96.9 Billion Euros in Final 12-Month Tender http://tinyurl.com/yegv5wf

    Swine Flu Vaccine Batches Recalled by Sanofi After Tests Show Low Potency http://tinyurl.com/y8uohnb

  32. Bloomberg : Fed May Raise U.S. Economic Assessment, Affirm Near-Zero Rates

    Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues may indicate the U.S. recovery is gaining strength while repeating a pledge to keep the benchmark interest rate almost at zero for an “extended period.”

    The Federal Open Market Committee gathers as growth in the final quarter of 2009 accelerates to more than 4 percent, the fastest pace in almost four years, according to analysts’ forecasts. The FOMC will probably discuss how to eventually withdraw unprecedented programs to revive credit, including purchases of $1.43 trillion in housing debt, economists said….

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=afFSQUVyyHcw

  33. @Alister.

    Sorry mate.
    Completely lost me there.

  34. warburg sidney

    green again, do you have any prove concerning that Adorno/Beatles-royalties story? I am very interested in seeing something substantial!
    Till now it was only Alan Watt that talked about this fact!

  35. @Youri .. Euro

    I agree that “recoining” back to the old local currencies would take far too long in an emergency.

    BTW… Each country prints their own Euro-notes.

    When the SHTF in 2007 Oct/Nov., it was mentioned on German MSM TV that German customers were demanding Euro notes ONLY of German origin from their banks.

    Interesting IMO !
    It tells you that the Germans are very much aware and distrustful of the EU idea IMO !

    PS: I never would have thought that ( “all” Germans being aware ) actually !
    Maybe it was the oldest Generation .. that probably have the hoghest distrust ?

  36. 1,000,000,000 times more damaging than an iranian nuke.

  37. @ Mini US—-You think there’s a link between Peter and other prominent Schiff’s ? Would make sense – a man that smart likely has successful genes ……….?? & please dont go on a ideological rant against jews; offensive & dumbunreasionabvle

  38. @ Mike, agreed !

  39. @harry_w

    Interesting idea: “An Asia bond could save us from the dollar” by Thaksin Shinawatra, 6 October 2009, (The Financial Times) http://tinyurl.com/yct4emx

    I think I told this idea to snoot once somewhere on this blog to keep the dollar around as reserve currency but to make it a different one from the American dollar. You decouple that coin from the system.

    This at least would save a lot of money spend on logistics and distribution and adaption of a new coin if that’s what’s going to happen anyways. This could also happen in Greece Europe when things get really out of control it maybe the only solution: decoupling of your coin from the matrix system for a while.

    Giving out new coins only serves it’s purpose if the countries involved profit from it in a way that it supports the coin and business ties are tight enough. Otherwise you’ll get the situation like in Europe were the PIGS (Portugal ,Italy and Spain) Countries suffer from their Euro coin while leaning on stronger original coins like the Deutsch Mark for instance which imbalances threatens the EU.

    Never in her short live the European Union was able to live up her own monetary rules. The rules were sacrificed “for the greater good” of what? A unrealistic effort to maintain an unsustainable monetary situation which does more harm than good?

    A World currency is just an Illusion which never see the day of light or if it does it will be short lived cause the differences between the economies are simply to divers to sustain just one coin. “Supra Coin” a coin not controlled by the people but by a hand-full of oligarchs who think they know everything better than us. Well, they don’t! It’s a stupid idea, a one world coin.

  40. on your marks. get set. rush for the exits in T minus 5 seconds. and….GO!

  41. CPI ( shadowstats) adjusted Gold price from Jessei’s

    http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2009/Midas/Midas1215I.gif

    From 1970 to 2009

  42. @Mike — 100k starve to death every day… and there’s never been any outrage cause it’s a not a very sexy way to die…

    I was try to tell this to NYers on 9-12-01… :-) no broken bones

  43. Ben bon !

  44. @Harry…well we all know what happened to Mr. Thaksin dont we.

  45. anything but green.again

    @ Fellow Big-Bang Deniers (if any besides abg.a)

    How they keep us in Plato’s Cave:

    NewScientist Moves the Goal Posts
    - Challenge to “terms of use” forces change
    by Dave Smith
    September 19, 2009

    For a long time now many people have alleged NewScientist hides behind its “terms of use” to censor out comments which pose serious challenges to its regular commentators. Not only has this been found to be accurate, a recent challenge caused NewScientist to make significant changes to its “terms of use” so that the editors could continue their censorship in the secure knowledge that future challenges will not see the light of day.

    http://www.thunderbolts.info/thunderblogs/archives/davesmith_au08/090919_newsci.htm

  46. Courtesy Infowars .com

  47. It looks like the nanny state of Great Britain is wending its way into one of its “colonies.”

    GREEN LIGHT FOR INTERNET FILTER PLANS

    The Federal Government will introduce compulsory internet filtering to block overseas sites which contain criminal content, including child sex abuse and sexual violence. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the changes today following a controversial trial to filter the internet which was conducted earlier this year. Senator Conroy says some internet content is simply not suitable in a civilised society.

    “It is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material,” he said. “The Government believes that parents want assistance to reduce the risk of children being exposed to such material.”

    This would include sites containing child sex abuse, bestiality, sexual violence or detailed information about how to use drugs [emphasis mine] or commit crimes.

    Ah, yes—it’s always about “protecting” the children. It used to be said that politics is the last refuge of a scoundrel. I’ve updated that observation for the 21st century: Protecting the children is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

    Internet Walls comming up

  48. Bit off topic again – but here’s a drawing I’ve done based on the New Economics Foundation (NEF) calculations of the social value of different jobs – “hospital cleaners create more than £10 in value for every £1 they receive in pay. Meanwhile “elite City bankers” – those who earn over £500,000 – destroy £7 of value for every £1 they create”: -

    http://ny-image0.etsy.com//il_fullxfull.110385064.jpg

  49. @Mike

    People are gonna die f*cking those wales!

    @Bonn

    The two issues are the US position and Arfica’s quest for compensation. Brown thinks he’s tackled the latter, but the first is just not fixable without US acceptanc of Kyoto. In many ways the chickens are coming home for the US.

  50. @harry_w

    Thanks so much for the old FT link on Shinawatra. One of the more interesting ideas in macroeconomics I’ve seen for some time.

    It’s unfortunate that this part:

    “The return on this bond will be the same or higher than those on US Treasury bills as the issuers of the bond have a better ability to pay than the US government.”

    is utter nonsense :) Better ability to pay would mean better credit, which should mean a lower return (because lower risk) – unless he is suggesting that US bonds will just go into default or stealth default through deflation. In which case the phrasing is rather opaque..

    By the way, about Thaksin:
    I have always been suspicious of the Thai (at least middle class Bangkokian Thai) attitude towards Thaksin, which by the way a lot of expats have picked up, that he’s some kind of uber-corrupt thug. Maybe he is, doubtless his dealings have been shady in some areas.

  51. Maybe a good question would be why? What does their currency buy except oil so is this just a workaround to be able to accept other currencies for oil?

    Going to watch the protest at the COP15 later..

  52. @ Max Keiser & Stacey Herbert
    Latest on Al Gore
    ” Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.

    Are you gonna do an In dept analysis of Climate Change and Cap and Trade howz it gonna work.
    Personally I smell BS.

    So unless ya go in detail and figure out how it works and explain it to us.
    ;-)

  53. Off Topic For Max

    Hey Max, could you clear up something for me about short selling in your next Truth About Comments show ? Sorry to be off topic but I cant help but think short selling dilutes the shares. Lets say I hold 10,000 shares of Max A Million Mining and Kenny Boy goes short 5,000 shares of Max A Million Mining . My broker lends Kenny Boy half of my shares and they are sold to Miss Stacy. Miss Stacy paid good money for her 5,000 shares in Max A Million Mining. As far as I know I still hold my 10,000 shares and Miss Stacy has 5,000 shares in her account . That’s 15,000 shares being held and the company did not create any new shares. Yes Kenny Boy owes 5,000 shares , but why can’t he short another 5,000 shares and use them to pay off the shares borrowed from me to clear the trade but adding them right back with the next short sale? There will still be more people holding shares then the company produced in the first place. Am I missing something ?

    Vega Man

  54. anything but green.again

    @ Poetry fans

    The comments over at WattsUpWithThat are a hoot sometimes. On this page the commenters are vying with each other to make captions for an Al Gore inconvenient moment. Some are pretty funny.

    But this is worth checking out if you’re into parodies and poetry. Scroll down aways and you’ll find this;

    Reed Coray (21:17:17) :

    When I heard Al Gore had written a poem, I was inspired to try my hand–well actually, to modify Edgar Allan Poe’s hand, in particular The Raven. What surprised me was the how appropriatley and fittingly Mr. Poe’s words apply to Al Gore/global warming. I believe Al Gore’s spirit and wisdom were channeled through me to my fingers.
    THE DODO (aka The GOR’CLE)
    A Takeoff of THE RAVEN by Edgar Allan Poe
    (with apologies to Mr. Poe)

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/14/gore-gets-caught-in-a-factual-fabrication-at-copenhagen/

  55. Peter – I dare not say his surname :)

    Inflation, rates and bonds, Banks.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/SchiffReport

  56. I think the US is not being destroyed by accident but by design. The same bankers who built the US, are destroying it. (Nope freedom, innovation and all that spiel didn’t build it. Bankers created the economic climate that allowed America to succeed as it did. Bankers did via WWII which they arranged to leave the US with intact infrastructure and industry including the men to run it and the financing and capital flows to the US from Germany and elsewhere. ) The same banker class will control the Gulf currency.

    Looks good for gold if a significant portion of world oil production is priced in it soon, imo. I’d expect it to cause less running to the US dollar and more running to gold. I don’t see a Gulf currency becoming strong, but it can still hurt the US dollar.

    P.S. did anyone else nearly gag on their Cheerios when Alex Jones talked about the virtuous nature of America’s formation into such a successful nation in Fall of the Republic? Guess it sounds better than purchasing a vast patch of rich and healthy land with genocide and plundering it with the labor of slaves. Unless those are the forms of hard work and innovation he was referring to.

  57. Mike2liverpool

    Fu*k the Wales………How many died in Iraq?……How many are to die in Afgan?……..where the outrage?

    Mike

  58. Hoooggaaaa bugggaa
    India and China showing middle finger at the Hopenhagen
    LOLOLOLOLOL Hic
    I hope the BRIC country’s get more Balls
    Hic ;-)

  59. Personally, my favourite proposed adaptation to the international monetary system comes from Thaksin Shinawatara:

    An Asia bond could save us from the dollar
    Financial Times
    06-Oct-2008
    By Thaksin Shinawatra

    “…The prosperity in Asia – created by US investment and trade – has spawned problems for the US. East Asia’s current account surpluses have averaged $400bn over the past decade, while the US current account deficit runs at an annual average of $800bn. Asian countries, other than Japan, accumulated the surpluses largely by supplying cheap goods and services to the US. They can no longer rely on this one major market given that America’s ability to sustain consumer spending is severely curtailed. Having parked most of their surpluses in the currency that was most convertible – the dollar – Asian countries face the prospect of losing as much as the country that issued the currency. Most of Asia’s sovereign surpluses are in US dollar-denominated equity and notes and Treasury bills. Is there a way to protect the value of these as the US economy finds its feet? Asia’s reserves could be turned into Asia bonds that, without losing their value, could be used to stimulate investment and trade in Asia.

    “…Three billion Asians want their governments to invest their hard-earned surpluses in tangible productive capacity that they can see rather than playing with paper investments, such as esoteric derivatives.

    The bond will be denominated in, shall we say, global dollars or “globars” (if you like the allusion to the shiny metal bars that were once the universal standard currency). The International Monetary Fund could play a consultative or managerial role in maintaining the value of this global or offshore dollar while the national currency of the US settles down to a level that suits its economic needs.

    What happens if the new US administration is not farsighted enough to agree to a separate standard for external dollars? Asian governments could still issue these bonds incrementally as they accumulate new surpluses. China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand could agree to pool some of their reserves in a certain ratio into a basket of currencies to issue a bond. The return on this bond will be the same or higher than those on US Treasury bills as the issuers of the bond have a better ability to pay than the US government.

    “…This bond would contribute to the development of a healthy capital market in the region that can remain stable while the US works its way through its financial crises. The greatest benefit would be that Asia’s surpluses will be recycled into productive assets in Asia.”

    I’d have problems with the proposition for IMF management, but the basic motivation and purpose seem reasonable.

    And name, ‘Globars’, <3

    I just love it. :D

  60. They have been talking about it for ages, I recon that they will sit on the US$ for a bit longer.
    You must remember that all the oil companies are JV’s with shell, BP, Texco etc…

  61. The link [http://http//www...] needs a fix

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6819136/Gulf-petro-powers-to-launch-currency-in-latest-threat-to-dollar-hegemony.html

    Lolz @ Abu Dhabi playing ‘the Brits’ by staying out in a sulk.

    Monetary union implies a high degree of political union — as mentioned — there is an absence of free movement of goods, capital and labour — ironically the common language might ease the passage towards a genuine single labour market, which doesn’t really exist in the EU.

  62. Do they really want to be engulfo’d by swarms of invading Marines?