The Amero

I was hanging with my friend AJ yesterday, and as we talked through the night, we came upon the discussion of world currencies and the Amero. He claims that through our lifetime, we shall see fewer and fewer currencies worldwide.

True, because that is starting to happen, and quite soon also. For example, if everything goes as planned, by 2010, the Arab Gulf countries will adopt a unified currency, the Khaleeji. It will be the main currency for Saudi Arabia (largest economy), United Arab Emirates (second largest economy), and Kuwait, Bahrain , Qatar , with Oman and Yemen to follow in later years. It's pretty likely that all the in the Gulf would follow suit.

The credit crisis today, has awakened currencies talk, especially with the plunge of the world's leading currencies, such as the US Dollar, the Euro, and sadly, the British Pound. Hot gossip around the financial world today, is about the Amero, or the North American Union suggested unified currency for the United States , Canada and Mexico. I am not a financier, and I barely know the terms definitions, but I do know some, and I kinda program the systems behind the number crunching. I also know, that the currency markets (aka Futures: exchange rates and interbank offering rates) have alot to do with the trade balances amongst world economies, and when you devalue, re-value, dollarize, or adopt a new currency, there will be some impact on the local economy, and, if it's a leading economy (i.e. an economy that is used as a benchmark or indicator to world economic market movements etc... ) adopting a currency such as the Amero, may have significant effects. I am not an advocate of conspiracy theories, but well, here is what Hal Turner thinks in this video.

As a resident of the United Kingdom earning in British Pounds, but a national of Lebanon, where USD is the main currency along with the Lebanese Pound, I am interested in the GBPUSD-FX1 exchange rate and because of the bluddy credit crunch, well, the pound has slumped in the past six months against the dollar.


This means I am forced to keep my money in the UK and in British pounds, until the GBP recovers against the dollar, and my purchasing power, in countries such as Lebanon that adopt the dollar as a second currency improves. At least I know this much about exchange rates. (So does everyone else ey...)

Anyway, the Amero isn't the only potential currencies to be introduced, there is a whole list of them: (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

• Amero, proposed North American currency union
• African Central Bank, proposed central bank for the African Union
• Eco, another attempt at an African common currency, within the ECOWAS community.
• The West African CFA franc and Central African CFA franc (C.F.A.), both of which are exsisting currency unions in Africa
• The Asian Currency Unit, between ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea

Worth keeping an eye on this.