Could We Be Closer To A Single World Currency?

But while it is certainly the case that some currencies are having a really hard time of it lately, could a single currency for the entire world really solve all the problems we’re having?

That seems to be what the President of Kazakhstan thinks.  Nursultan Nazarbayev thinks that this would be the perfect solution to the currency turmoil and financial woes the world is experiencing at the moment.  This news story detailing his opinions, as reported by Forbes.com, gives you an idea of what the President of this country thinks.  You can read it at http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/11/ap6152509.html.

On the surface of it, it would seem that there could be no worse time to introduce a single world currency into use.  After all, with the problems that we are all going through at the moment, would we really want to risk taking on a single currency as well? 

The likelihood of it happening as a solution to the current financial situation, as President Nazarbayev seems to be suggesting, is next to impossible anyway.  As we have seen with the single European currency, there needs to be a long period of planning before anything on this scale is implemented.  It’s not likely to be brought in on a whim after a few minor discussions.

Of course, there are people who have long campaigned for a single global currency.  And those in favour of the idea will seek any opportunity they can to try and further this aim.  Perhaps they see the current problems with exchange rates rising and falling – sometimes severely – and they think that it wouldn’t happen if we all had one single currency.

The President of Kazakhstan is obviously an ardent enthusiast of the idea, although he may not have thought it through in enough depth.  His recent comments in support of a single global currency didn’t actually go into enough detail to suggest how it could be done. 

The fact of the matter is that we are in the middle of a crisis we have ourselves created.  It might be worthwhile to think ahead and speculate on what currencies we might be using in years to come, but it won’t help us get through our current situation.  Wouldn’t it be better for all the leaders to focus on anything that could help us through this recession faster and more easily than we are at the moment?

If you have been reading the comments made by President Nazarbayev you will also know that he was rather less than courteous when it came to commenting on the US dollar.  He said, “The global currency market is not competitive.  And that means it is not civilised.”  And he also blamed the dollar for much of the problems that we now face.

But let’s be honest here.  There will always be one main currency that is more powerful than all the others, and at the moment that happens to be the US dollar.  That does not mean though that it is to blame for everything that has gone wrong with the world economy.  The real picture is a lot more complex than the President of Kazakhstan seems to be implying.  Perhaps that is why his comments have made headlines – but don’t seem to have been taken too seriously in any quarters.

So could we expect to see a single global currency at any point in the future?  Perhaps – but it won’t be until long after this particular financial crisis has passed.  Until then (if that point ever does arrive) we can expect to see plenty of supporters grabbing any chance they have to promote their cause for a single currency.  And who can blame them?  After all they believe that one currency would benefit everyone in the world, and so they are bound to promote that belief as often as they can.

But it won’t happen for some time to come.  The current crisis is of our own making, and it is up to us to solve it as well.  And we will, as we have come through every other financial crisis in our past.  It just might take some time to get there.