Russia calls on G20 for new currency

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Russia calls on G20 for new currency

According to the Moscow Times, the Kremlin has published its priorities for the upcoming G20 meeting, one of which is the creation of a supranational reserve currency. It wants the IMF to investigate the possibility of increasing the reserve currencies in its Special Drawing Rights.

I had to laugh when I read that. As a wit on a bulletin board wrote: “You spend 73 years telling the rest of the world that its capitalist money is the black-hearted source of all human evil. Then 15 years whooping it up because your oil is giving your dismal financial system some ill-deserved credibility for a while. Then three years wishing you had some of everybody else's currency instead of your own toilet-paper roubles. And then you demand to be part of a super-reserve currency that treats you just as if none of the above had ever happened.”

I reckon Russia’s got two hopes of creating a new international currency, as the market always says: Bob Hope and no hope. Still, it is a dynamic place and there are tentative signs that the era of dollar strength has come to an end now that the US has decided to print more money.

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