MidnightCall Magazine
In this issue:
- Before the Last Flood — By Norbert Lieth
- Gaza Flotilla: Aggression or Self-Defense? — By Arno Froese
- Far East AsiaTrendsToday – Part III:Geo-prophecy or Geopolitics? — By Wilfred Hahn
News From Israel MagazineIn this issue:
- The Myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque: Part 1 — By Herbert Novitsky
- ON THE HORIZON:
- Obama Honors Jewish Heritage Month
- Building an Electronic Human Brain
- ‘Iran Critics Must Get Rid of Nukes,’ Says Turkish PM
- Israel Joins Prestigious OECD Club
- Israel Accepted after Unanimous Vote
- Spy Satellite Successfully Launched
China and Brazil Challenge Dollar
Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies to trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.
The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency.
An official at Brazil’s central bank stressed that talks were at very early stages. He also stressed that what was under discussion was not a currency swap of the kind China recently agreed with Argentina, and the US has agreed with several countries, including Brazil.
Mr. Zihou recently proposed replacing the US dollar as the world’s leading currency with a new international reserve currency, possibly in the form of special drawing rights, a unit of account used by the International Monetary Fund.
Brazil and Argentina signed an agreement under which importers and exporters in the two countries may use pesos and reals, although they can also continue to pay in US dollars if they prefer.
An aide to Mr. Lula da Silva on his visit to Beijing said the political will to enact a similar deal with China was clearly present. “Something that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago is a real possibility today,” he said. “Strong currencies like the real and the renminbi are perfectly capable of being used as trade currencies, as is the case between Brazil and Argentina.”
In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Mr. Zhou said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations.”
Financial Times, 19 May 2009, pg. 6
The US dollar, as the world’s leading currency, has been in decline for a long time. We reported on that tendency several decades ago. This is not something that comes unexpectedly; the dollar has seen a steady decline over the last 40-plus years. But the issue at hand is really global currency. As Mr. Zhou stated, a reserve currency should be “disconnected from individual nations.” That would be true global currency.
Does this come as a surprise? Not at all, if one reads the Bible. Global economy must be dominated by a global currency. It is not a question of if but when.