Is the dollar doomed?

World Bank chief and Trilateral Commission member, Robert Zoellick, has dropped another hint that the US dollar will increasingly be replaced by other currencies in global currency reserves. Could this be another nudge towards the "Amero" for North America?

A North American Monetary Union (NAMU) was posited as early as 1999 by number of "think tanks" including the Fraser Institute and Howe Institute. Some observers have criticised the NAMU plan which they see as building upon the foundations of the disastrous North American Free Trade Agreement and the next step towards a de facto North American Union under the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

Reuters quoted Zoellick saying that: "The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency. Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options.

"We need a system of political economy that reflects a new multi-polarity of growth. It needs to integrate rising economic powers as 'responsible stakeholders' while recognising that these countries are still home to hundreds of millions of poor and face staggering challenges of development."

Iran recently announced it aims to drop the dollar completely in calculating its Oil Stabilisation Fund and replace it with other currencies such as the Euro. Tehran encouraged other nations not to buy oil in dollars anymore. Scores of other nations including Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, most of Latin America, Sudan, and Russia have taken steps to marginalise the use of the dollar in global trade. You may remember that Iraq did just this before she was invaded not long after, in March 2003. Watch out...

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