Global currency - How would it work?

Discussion in 'Business & Economics' started by Quantum Quack, Mar 7, 2005.

  1. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    Hey, pm me your email, I'll send you a Latvian punk song from y.~1996 about the US. (it's in english)
     
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  3. travis Registered Senior Member

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    A global currency would be a global dictatorship controlled by the international bankers. No checks or balances in such a system. Are you ready to have your chip implanted?
     
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  5. neil cox Registered Senior Member

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    I'm inclined to agree with Travis. The handful of citizens who are selflessly attempting to make Jacksonville, Florida function well, have almost no control. Our grandchildren may be paying for the recent super bowel for the next 50 years. How can we hope that a world government could control currency or anything else, except according to desires of a few very rich and very powerful (but perhaps insane) persons? I'm pleasently surprised at the success of the Euro, and I wish the Euro a bright future, but it is hard to be optimistic. Neil
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2005
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  7. marv Just a dumb hillbilly... Registered Senior Member

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    See my first post. There seems to be some confusion here about the meaning of "currency" and "economy". A global currency does not equate to a global economy. An economy can exist even in the absence of a currency, i.e., a barter economy.

    A currency only facilitates the exchange of goods and services. I might exchange my time and labor for currency which I then exchange for bread and milk. The economy is actually an exchange of my time and labor for the bread and milk and the currency is simply a convienient means of portability over time and space.

    Differences in currency exchange rates between nations has nothing to do with a piece of paper held in the hand, and everything to do with the value of time, labor, bread and milk in different countries.

    The only time those little pieces of paper have an intrinsic value is if they become rare and collectible, such as a couple of 1914 issue Federal Reserve $2 notes I have in a coin/currency collection.
     
  8. neil cox Registered Senior Member

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    I tried the Barter system in 1980. I got $50 for about 2 days work which wife and I "spent" in 3 places and had about $7 left over, which I could likely still spend if I could find the peice of paper. It was quite inconvenient. Sort of like a gift certificate to a shop way across town. Done that way the paper was sort of currency as are gift certificates and coupons. Without sort of currency it would be even less practical, unless you know something I don't. I could do favors for anyone who asked and hope someone would grant my wishes. Neil
     
  9. marv Just a dumb hillbilly... Registered Senior Member

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    Exactly, Neil. A strict barter system works well only with very small communities. One town with one blacksmith, one shoemaker, one cabinet maker, a handfull of farmers and/or fishermen, etc. To be effective, it's essentially a one-on-one system. That's why larger populations require specie. The barter system you experimented with was only to avoid taxes. Yah, I got solicitations too, only I didn't bother with it because I never could find individuals who needed my skill (computers) in the 80's. Currency, including any global currency, is necessary because it's the only practical way to trade things of value.

    But even that is changing. I never carry cash. Instead, I write checks, even for less than $1US. US currency used to be convertible into gold on demand, then only silver, and then it finally became fiat. And now, for those who don't even like to carry a checkbook, there's the credit card.

    Another thing to think about are bank transfers. My retirement pension and Social Security monthly payments are wired diectly into my checking account. From my checking account, monthly debits are automatically wired to the electric company, gas company, two insurance companies, the telephone company, and some just transferred into my savings account at the same bank. Not one piece of currency is printed or coin minted to accomplish those transactions. On-line purchases are becoming more popular, and they're done by credit card, which is really a form of electronic exchange.

    Maybe there will never be a "global" currency because there may never be a need for one! We may already have our universal "credit".
     
  10. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    Marv I think you have just described the "credits" system I was talking about. A form of pseudo currency simply because it never is in a material form. A virtual currency.....
     
  11. marv Just a dumb hillbilly... Registered Senior Member

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  12. neil cox Registered Senior Member

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    USA dollars (but not checks drawn on small town USA banks) are accepted in many foreign cities, but try some Turkish lira or even Euro at a yard sale in Jacksonville, Florida. My employer in Quito, Equidor probably won't pay me in USA dollars or direct deposit my pay in a smalltown, USA bank unless, I accept less pay than the official exchange rate. Dollars likely will not get any closer to Universal currency than they are now. Neil
     
  13. BeHereNow Registered Senior Member

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    Maryland is trying to join other states in allowing employers to pay employees with debit cards. This is “a convenience” for those employee who do not have direct deposit. Business and government both are anxious to eliminate paychecks. For business is a money saver, for the government it makes the money even more trackable.

    Isn’t this a step closer to a global economy and a global currency, and the scifi credit system?
     
  14. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    I think you are correct. One day the plastic card will be accepted anywhere and issue credits in a global dollar. [ no exchange rates to worry about] Digital money for a virtual economy.
     
  15. RAW2000 suburban Registered Senior Member

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    England don't nor europe, china, japan ect... get down to an currency exchange burueo theres plenty of places where dollars aren't standard currency. Even if shops taxis..ect you used accepted them its only because they know they can change them into to the local currency and with high levels of american tourism everyone knows what a dollar looks like so taking them is hardly inconveient since its easy to tell if its legal. However the dollar is no where near to being a standard global currency because individual goverenments having control over fiscal policy and a bunch of stuff like that, futher more I like having Queen Liz on my notes and lions on me coins. :m:
     
  16. kenworth dude...**** it,lets go bowling Registered Senior Member

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    thats awesome.,just like the dude
     
  17. android nothing human inside Registered Senior Member

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    By bankrupting the wealthy nations?
     
  18. lien Registered Member

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    A world currency wouldn't necessarily need a global government, but it would need a common central bank. Like ECB it would have some major difficulties. Like more and more central banks, they probably would not use supply of money, but the interest rate to control inflation. The main problem would most likely that the inflation rate in India will not be the same as in Greenland or Luxemburg. This is similar to the problems in the Euro-countries, Finland and Italy do not have the same inflation rate, but suffer under the same interest rates.

    I am not a fan of the Euro, it does have pros and cons, but for me the cons are too heavy.
     
  19. rvprince Registered Member

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    question....Would a single global currency affect trade surplus/deficit in any way?... if so how?
     
  20. Chatha big brown was screwed up Registered Senior Member

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    I am a business major so make room for me here. The world already has a global currency, culture is the only thing that sets them apart. The bigger question is differences and value. Differences can be easily explained; we have soverigne states so we have respective currencies. Value is determined by future speculation, its like a bet on how well a country's economy will perform. The chief group of people that determine currency rates are private international investment and financial firms, Meryll Lynch, Mellon, UBS swiss, Citi, Deutch Bank e.t.c. They are the body that tells everyone where to invest, they direct the flow of economy pretty much. They are more influencial than the World bank or IMF. Off topic, a lot of people wonder why the USD is lower than the Euro, the sole reason is because the Euro is a currency of about 10 countries, its safer to bet on a number of different countries than one single state.
     
  21. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    The thing that I find perplexing with regards to this issue was demonstrated for me during a recent visit to Brazil.


    I was chatting to a young man about respective labour values.

    We made the comparision between 40 hours labour in Australia and the equivilent labour in Brazil.

    Essentially it boiled down to this.

    To buy a new small Toyota Corolla whilst selling at similar USD values would take some one in Brazil nearly 5 years to buy where as in Australia doing exactly the same work took only approximately 1 year.

    So it seems that global currency does little to address the inequality of labor values.

    It is interesting in discussions with a group of young people in Brazil the notion came up that technologies such as the internet have the potential of blowing all those barriers of location vs labor values away.

    For exmple:
    A good graphic artist in a slum in Brazil can earn superior rates of USD by free-lancing for a major Arts and Design house in NewYorlk, or Sydney or London for example with out ever setting foot out side of the location they are in. Earning a dis-proportionate amount of income when compared to local business institutions.

    So in many ways the internet can provide a means to equalise this issue of locations vs labour value.

    I guess as the world gets smaller and tighter labor values will eventuallly become more consistant regardless of location.

    Obviously if major international companies had to pay local rates for sweat shop workers in other poorer counrties the wealth of those poorer countries would improve considerably. Of course chasing the almighty dollar profit would prevent this....

    Possibly if a better more ethical system of using international sweat shops was established say rates at 50 % of local would achieve better results for all concerned, though a reduction in immediate profit would be the cost.

    Any way just some uneducated thoughts......
     
  22. swivel Sci-Fi Author Valued Senior Member

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    Exactly the problem the EU is having, and one reason many people thought it would be a bad idea. It puts a ton of countries at the whim of the German economy.
     
  23. Athelwulf Rest in peace Kurt... Registered Senior Member

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    I don't think so. If you can't grow rice in your area and you want rice, you'd have to import it. It costs money to send a product somewhere, and the buyer usually must pay for it. Therefore, a kilogram of rice bought locally from a market right next to the rice fields in rural China is gonna cost less than the same rice from the same field shipped thousands of miles to Antarctica.

    No it wouldn't. Banning barter doesn't ensure that barter stops.

    I see no difference between credits and currency if credits are being used as currency. To me, that's like asking what the difference is between red and color.

    Can I have it too?

    Why the German economy? Or are you just giving an example?
     

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