Mar 19, 2009

U.N. Panel Says World Should Ditch the Dollar

By Joel C.Rosenberg

...World leaders discussing move to single currency

“A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar,” reports a Reuters story this morning.
“Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old ECU, or European Currency Unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket. Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform. ‘It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency,’ he said.”
The story comes just a day after the Moscow Times reported that Russian leaders are coming to the G20 summit of world leaders in London on April 2nd prepared to call for moving to a new single common currency. The leaders of Iran, Libya and Kazakhstan have also begun speaking about creating single currencies within their regions — the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, respectively. The IMF, Asian Development Bank and other international and regional financial institutions in recent years have been studying how to move to a single currency as well. The “Euro” is the model many are looking to, in part because 20% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves are already held in euros.

These are curious developments given that scholars of Bible prophecy have long noted that according to the Scriptures, in the "last days" the world will see the emergence of an entirely new international financial architecture, complete with a single common global currency created and mandated by the leaders of Europe. The Bible indicates that eventually no one on earth will be able to engage in commerce without "buying in" to the new cashless system. The prophecy is found in Revelation 13:16-17, which reads: "And he [the world leader that emerges from a revived Europe] causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one can buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."

Cynics and skeptics have long dismissed such talk as the province of "religious nuts" and "prophecy buffs." But the discussion is now being advanced by major world leaders. It's too soon to say where this will all lead, but these are certainly developments worth watching.

Related Links

Role and value of U.S. dollar set to fall: Asia think tanks - Reuters
Dollar Declines Beyond $1.37 Versus Euro on Fed’s Bond Buying - Bloomberg
U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar - Reuters