At the recent G8 Summit on July 10, held in Italy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the concept of a global currency, the United Future World Currency. Medvedev spoke of this development as part of understanding and appreciating "how interdependent we are," and said that a supranational currency would be a significant instrumental in tackling the global financial crisis, rising doubts about the future of the US dollar as the standard of international trade.
On the United Future World Currency website, the group states on its frontpage that:
The organization behind the conceptualization and promotion of the coin, started in 1996, cites the Euro as setting a historical precedent of uniting politically and culturally differing countries, with histories of war and conflict, under one economic banner for the benefit of all participating parties. A ten-part manifesto outlines the project's agenda and set of roles, all of which hinge on the idea of bringing the peoples of the world together as one. Highlighting the United Future World Currency's guiding principle of uniting the governments of the world, and therefore the people which they represent, the coin displays the slogan "Unity In Diversity" on the back. The project says that the national-transcendent money would, "symbolize not only the economic, but also the human, social, political, and spiritual bonds between the Nations of different Continents that hold similar ideals." The coin is still in early development and promotion of the idea of the single global monetary system still needs a significant amount of ground gained in public and political support before the project can substantially materialize.
On the United Future World Currency website, the group states on its frontpage that:
"[The coin] is a necessity and a challenge. What seems an impossible dream becomes an inevitable historic, economic and social process. It is an event which is intertwined with the fate of human evolution... A single currency becomes the premise for an increasingly global planet. A virtual currency capable of speaking a single, comprehensible language to foster humankind's innate desire to go farther, to surpass boundaries, and move towards true principles of peace, freedom, brotherhood and understanding beyond issues of race, political and religious beliefs and party interests."
The organization behind the conceptualization and promotion of the coin, started in 1996, cites the Euro as setting a historical precedent of uniting politically and culturally differing countries, with histories of war and conflict, under one economic banner for the benefit of all participating parties. A ten-part manifesto outlines the project's agenda and set of roles, all of which hinge on the idea of bringing the peoples of the world together as one. Highlighting the United Future World Currency's guiding principle of uniting the governments of the world, and therefore the people which they represent, the coin displays the slogan "Unity In Diversity" on the back. The project says that the national-transcendent money would, "symbolize not only the economic, but also the human, social, political, and spiritual bonds between the Nations of different Continents that hold similar ideals." The coin is still in early development and promotion of the idea of the single global monetary system still needs a significant amount of ground gained in public and political support before the project can substantially materialize.
The adoption of a unified currency would be a huge step for humanity, one that I am very skeptical would ever happen. From everything presented on the United Future World Currency's website at this point, everything is still very general, broad, and philosophical. Uniting the people of the world under one currency would create a more concrete sense of interdependence, and it would symbolize a tremendous sense of global progress. The positives on paper are very appealing. More potential for international economic stability, more potential for multi-lateral diplomacy, and more potential for cultural understanding in a tense 21st century climate. The negatives of the proposal are also very vivid. With a centralized, global currency comes less national autonomy and less domestic control over their system of money. The question of how the United Future World Currency's governing body, the future global Federal Reserve, would deal with issues like inflation, circulation, taxes, etc., would be very difficult. What if one country or a region was suffering an economic crisis that demanded more coins to be pressed or coins withdrawn from circulation to stabilize the economic, how adversely would that affect the rest of the global economy? Would a global currency alleviate poverty, or make it more rampant and intense? How would political power be separated equally amongst all nations and how would the possibility for corruption and manipulation be monitored and curtailed? How would prices be set for goods and services accurately and fairly across the entire global market place? What would happen to countries that didn't adopt the new money? Would they be unable to participate in the global economy? It would probably end up being similar to what happens with the WTO or G8, where countries that don't participate don't get a voice in the decision making process of decisions that will effect them anyway.
In the near future, I think this is highly unlikely. From an American perspective, our country doesn't like to submit any of our power to a foreign entity, especially one based in Europe, so I think there would be a significant backlash. If we can't pass a progressive health care reform bill without individuals drawing comparison between President Obama and Hitler, there is no way we'd be able to convert the dollar to a global currency. People would be up in arms, with some merit, about the slippery-slope of a world government, loss of independence, and the rise of authoritarian communism. It makes me think of some form of Marxist economics where we could lessen the gap between the have's and the have-not's and produce a fair, progressive global economy based on some European hybrids of capitalism and socialism, but all I can think of the potential for abuse by the world's richest individuals and most influential politicians to make themselves more rich and powerful. There's tremendous potential for a positive outcome and tremendous potential for a negative outcome, though I don't see it coming into fruition. Its an interesting idea nonetheless, and I think there should be a debate, at some level, regarding the merit of converting all the world's monetary systems into a single, unified currency.
