What-if scenarios?

[FAC_BROSSER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

     I hate to rain on the party, but I think
this talk of a tri-polar currency world may
be pollyannaish.  I am one of those fans of
Charles Kindleberger's who argued that one
of the reasons for the monetary problems
between the world wars was the lack of a
clear world currency, the pound having lost
it, but the dollar not yet having gained it.
     Clearly there are currency blocs, French
franc in West Africa , Russian ruble in some
of the former USSR republics, the Indian
rupee in some of its neighboring countries,
the yen nowhere yet.  But Doug Henwood's point
about the dollar and oil is more than symbolic.
It will not be priced in some combo of the
major currencies, unless that is the ecu.
Oil is now the major world commodity and
standard      of value (a de facto "energy
theory of value" situation?).  The currency
in which it is priced is the key currency,
for better or worse.
Barkley Rosser
JMU and UW-Madison