Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Bricks no Longer Refer to Dollars

With all the excitement over what the Lame Duck congress would or would not vote on or pass, a significant event has gone unremarked:  China and Russia, two of the four countries known as the BRICS  (Brazil, Russia, India, China), have begun to conduct their business in Euros rather than dollars.

I believe it was about two years ago the Vladimir Putin first mused publicly that the dollar was no longer suited to be the international currency and that it should be replaced by the euro.

Lately, there has been a lot of noise about China’s refusal to revalue the yuan.  Does this mean our financial experts have taken their eye off the ball, or that they believed they could indefinitely bury the news that two major players now prefer the euro to the dollar?

Every time I turn on a news channel I hear weighty discussions about the financial crisis, and every nuance of opinion as to how it may evolve.  I also hear about competitiveness, jobs being outsourced and a myriad of other considerations regarding the financial situation.  I’d like to hear someone opine on the likelihood of the euro replacing the dollar as the international means of payment across the board, as ever more countries take their cue from China.

That, rather than Senator McCain’s rants about DADT, would appear to be more relevant to United States security.

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