Comments on: Nothing in Sight to Replace the US Dollar as an International Reserve Currency http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/nothing-in-sight-to-replace-the-us-dollar-as-an-international-reserve-currency/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:07:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Lupita http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/nothing-in-sight-to-replace-the-us-dollar-as-an-international-reserve-currency/#comment-51035 Lupita Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:55:37 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9509#comment-51035 What Michael said. I would add that focusing on the dollar instead of the financial system misses the point. Just because the dollar has managed to remain, so far, an important reserve currency and unit of account, does not mean that the Fed will continue dictating global monetary policy to the advantage of the US and other rich countries. As we all know, it is the system that crashed, not the dollar which has been volatile, yes, but has more or less, until now, retained its value. The dollar may well go the way of the pound, which remains a reasonably respectable reserve currency even after the fall of the British Empire, or of Latin, which remained the lingua franca long after the fall of the Roman Empire. The pound and Latin are echoes from the past , and not terribly important since goods and ideas can be exchanged using other currencies or languages. The relevant issue is the crumbling of empires and its systems, including its financial one. Just as empires as somewhat legitimized by maintaining order, financial systems, even imperial ones, are expected to redistribute savings efficiently and productively. The US took massive amounts of wealth from the developing world and blew it. I assure you, wealth is no longer flowing into the US, but out. The old system has collapsed for good. What Michael said.

I would add that focusing on the dollar instead of the financial system misses the point. Just because the dollar has managed to remain, so far, an important reserve currency and unit of account, does not mean that the Fed will continue dictating global monetary policy to the advantage of the US and other rich countries. As we all know, it is the system that crashed, not the dollar which has been volatile, yes, but has more or less, until now, retained its value.

The dollar may well go the way of the pound, which remains a reasonably respectable reserve currency even after the fall of the British Empire, or of Latin, which remained the lingua franca long after the fall of the Roman Empire. The pound and Latin are echoes from the past , and not terribly important since goods and ideas can be exchanged using other currencies or languages. The relevant issue is the crumbling of empires and its systems, including its financial one.

Just as empires as somewhat legitimized by maintaining order, financial systems, even imperial ones, are expected to redistribute savings efficiently and productively. The US took massive amounts of wealth from the developing world and blew it. I assure you, wealth is no longer flowing into the US, but out. The old system has collapsed for good.

]]> By: Michael Kenny http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/nothing-in-sight-to-replace-the-us-dollar-as-an-international-reserve-currency/#comment-51025 Michael Kenny Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:00:24 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=9509#comment-51025 Boy, the collapse of Superpower USA may be a boon to the American little guy, but it is certainly scaring the hell out of the Canadian elite! The problem with Mr Tremblay's article is that it postulates as premises the very point he claims to be arguing, namely, that there has to be a single dominant power in the world and that that country's currency has to be the world reserve currency. Thus, he claims that there is some sort of "vacuum" and a "gap" to be filled but does not say why such a "gap" needs to be filled in the first place. Equally, he argues that there is no chance of an agreement on "a new supranational key currency". He's right, of course, but only because nobody sees the need for such a currency! As for the Euro, in spite of the success Mr Tremblay points to, it will not be a world reserve currency simply because no one in Europe wants to see the EU propelled into the same mess that world status has brought on the US and, indeed, such status would conflict with the "no more war" ethos which underlies the European unification project. So, yes, there will be no succesor to the dollar as world reserve currency, but that will be because no such currency is needed in the new world economic order which is developing. And, yes, the dollar will not collapse overnight, quite simply because the world doesn't work that way. To me, this is just the classic Eric Walberg harangue re-hashed into the polite language of the "green shoots" propaganda line! Boy, the collapse of Superpower USA may be a boon to the American little guy, but it is certainly scaring the hell out of the Canadian elite! The problem with Mr Tremblay’s article is that it postulates as premises the very point he claims to be arguing, namely, that there has to be a single dominant power in the world and that that country’s currency has to be the world reserve currency. Thus, he claims that there is some sort of “vacuum” and a “gap” to be filled but does not say why such a “gap” needs to be filled in the first place. Equally, he argues that there is no chance of an agreement on “a new supranational key currency”. He’s right, of course, but only because nobody sees the need for such a currency! As for the Euro, in spite of the success Mr Tremblay points to, it will not be a world reserve currency simply because no one in Europe wants to see the EU propelled into the same mess that world status has brought on the US and, indeed, such status would conflict with the “no more war” ethos which underlies the European unification project. So, yes, there will be no succesor to the dollar as world reserve currency, but that will be because no such currency is needed in the new world economic order which is developing. And, yes, the dollar will not collapse overnight, quite simply because the world doesn’t work that way.

To me, this is just the classic Eric Walberg harangue re-hashed into the polite language of the “green shoots” propaganda line!

]]>