HappySqurriel said: There is no problem with a international/global currency, there is a lot of problems with all fiat currencies ... If you had an international central bank where each dollar represented 1/100th of an ounce of gold, and every dollar in circulation had to be backed by 10% of its value in gold held in reserves, it wouldn’t matter how many countries were involved in this currency union the value of the currency would remain sound. Without rampant inflation governments would be (more or less) forced to be fiscally sound, saving money and sound investments would be rewarded rather than credit driven spending and speculation, and a healthy economy would emerge. |
There are a lot of problems.
Firstly, the transition cost would be ridiculous. Easily running into the billions of dollars. Then there's the age old question, what should the exchange rate be for superceded currencys? I.e. Would some argue that if we chose the dollar as the international currency, many people could see their life savings wiped out, due to perhaps a weak national currency, or even a short term downward trend that meant atm the currency was of less value against the dollar? And, even in a supposedly one currency bloc, the EU, inflation is a problem. Different countries still have different inflation rates, look at the Eastern European Countries vs Germany etc. A worldwide currency would not iron this out at all. In fact, it could make it worse, as these countries cannot change the currency rate to make their currency devaluate. And the biggest problem is the fact that countries are just economically unique. A one size fits all policy cannot fix this. Look at the EU, their ECB has a tough time balancing its interest rates, with low rates antagnozing problems for countries with high inflation rates and vice versa.
Just would not work I think.