“If the global currency crisis unfolds, then inevitably you get an alignment of a global world government. A new global currency and a new world order, so we may be moving towards that,” he said.

The U.S. dollar is one of many symbols of U.S. power after World War II and after the end of the Cold War, but we are now in an increasingly multipolar collegial world, according to Morrison Bonpasse, president of the Single Global Currency Association. A multicurrency system simply does not provided the stability now needed, he argues.

Theodore F. di Stefano - 11/03/09

There have been several suggestions by China, Brazil, Russia and other countries, and by a U.N. Commission headed by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, as well as by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for a new global reserve currency to replace the U.S. dollar. Increasingly, the media are running stories and comments about the “demise of the dollar.”

Recently, I asked the president of the Single Global Currency Association, Morrison Bonpasse, about his take on the future of the U.S. dollar and the global monetary system. In previous interviews, we’ve explored the idea of a single global currency.

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Jonathan Tirone - Sept. 7 2009

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.

China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency after the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market led to the worst global recession since World War II. China, the world’s largest holder of dollar reserves, said a supranational currency such as the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights, or SDRs, may add stability.

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By Pieter Bottelier - May 29, 2009

Since People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s proposal for reforming the international monetary system was published on March 23, there have been new developments with regard to the international use of the Chinese currency, the renminbi, also referred to as the yuan.

The historical context of governor Zhou’s proposal and the prospects for the international use of the renminbi are interrelated. In spite of the generally negative press reports in the United States, Zhou’s proposal was couched in careful, professional and non-provocative language. Although the proposal may have been partly motivated by domestic politics, it does reflect deep-rooted concern in China that the international financial crisis and subsequent US responses to it could undermine the purchasing power
of the dollar.

Since most of China’s US$2 trillion plus reserves are invested in dollar-denominated financial assets, Beijing’s concerns are understandable. While some in the United States argue that China should not fret about excessive dollar exposure - because that is the result of its controversial exchange rate policy - it should be recognized that China’s worries about the future of the US dollar are widely shared and that Zhou’s proposal appears to have been well received in many quarters around the world.

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Do we really want the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) issuing our global currency?

Agence France-Presse | Mar 11, 2009 [via]

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”.

Mr Nazarbayev and Prof Mundell urged the Group of 20 leading developed and developing economies to form a working group on the proposal at their summit on the global economic crisis in London on April 2.

“We should deliver our thoughts and the thoughts of this conference to the leaders of those countries,” Mr Nazarbayev said, referring to the G8 and G20 nations.

Mr Nazarbayev, who has held his post since Soviet times and has seen his oil-rich state hit badly by the crisis, unveiled his proposal last month and said yesterday the UN should oversee the currency’s introduction.

Though a boost for what might seem an other-worldly plan, Prof Mundell has previously suggested single currencies are only appropriate for countries with similar economies.

Mr Nazarbayev’s coining of “acmetal” combines the Greek word “acme,” meaning peak or best, and “capital.”

Jonathan Tirone - Oct. 19

European Central Bank council member Ewald Nowotny said a “tri-polar” global currency system is developing between Asia, Europe and the U.S. and that he’s skeptical the U.S. dollar’s centrality can be revived.

“What I see is a system where we have more centers of gravity” Nowotny said today in an interview with Austrian state broadcaster ORF-TV. “I see for the future a tri-polar development, and I don’t think that there will be fixed exchange rates between these poles.”

The leaders of the U.S., France and the European Commission will ask other world leaders to join in a series of summits on the global financial crisis beginning in the U.S. soon after the Nov. 4 presidential election, President George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a joint statement yesterday.

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