The Russians are trying to get the dollar out of the global spotlight.

What does that mean for America?

I don't have a dollar?

could I be russian?

oh geez....here....read:

"The Russians are upset that the U.S. dollar is the world's principal reserve currency, and this week in Davos they have been putting forward suggestions for how to fix the issue. First came Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who called in a speech on Wednesday for efforts to "facilitate the emergence of several reserve currencies."

On Thursday it was the turn of German Gref, a former Economics Minister who is now CEO of Russia's largest bank, state-owned Sberbank. His proposal during a panel discussion went even further than Putin's: In the absence of any serious competitors to the dollar, he advocated international control of U.S. monetary policy.

The biggest risk facing the world, he said, is that the U.S. dollar plays a global role but is managed narrowly "in the vested interests of only one country." In other words, he's pushing for the U.S. Federal Reserve to be governed more like an international institution than "merely" as the U.S. central bank."

And what is the problem with this? Are we somehow better than Swiss, than Thai, than English, etc. who's currency is not a world reserve currency?

Secondly, say if next reserve currency is Russian. So what? They should not have even for a while what we had for already quite a few years?

Are we so special that all the chocolates must always be ours?

if you believe in the new world order conspiracy it probably has something to do with that

i'm not sure Nogames
that's why i'm posing the question
i heard about it this morning on the Glenn Beck program and it raised some questions.

did this fact keep us empowered? if so will it add to our economy crashing?

If I was to try to even explain any of this it would take good few pages

There are certain problems with our way of economy

1 Credit rating. The more debt you have the more credit you have as long as you can service the debt. This means if you have no debt and you have money you do not have credit.

2 Changing the backing of dollar from the gold reserves to the current system which only allows printing of the money against the debt since late thirties. This means that if every one paid their debts or tried and didn't borrow any more the money supply will reduce. Theoretically this means that if all debts were paid there would be zero dollars in circulation.

These two factors alone are recipe for disaster by themselves.

As lending is almost at a stop shortage of money is crippling every one.

I don't get involved in many political/economic discussions as many people with diverse ideas try to block the fundamental which is crippled every one.

If every one (Including Governments) lived within their means there would be none of these crap we see around us.

There is something wrong with the idea of living in the ghetto driving a Mercedes which gets repossessed , there is something wrong buying a million dollar house and man and a wife killing themselves and their relationships trying to pay for it.

And you, my friend, are one of the few that understand that...

Our dollar keeps getting devalued. But as long as everyone uses it as a measure of value worldwide it remains a bit strong, or at least this is how i understand it.

Problem is the more credit we have, the bigger the debt , the more debt we have the high our bills, the higher our bills the more credit we need. This is unstable.

I believe when the world stops using the U.S. currency so widely, the value will go down, greater increasing the need for credit, greatly increasing the debt, etc. We will go down the same road, but the speed limit will just pick up. This is my theory.

and what kind of credibility does Russia or any other country have in succeeding with this?

It means signs of the times.. :D something I don't worry too much about, b/c I'm protected myself. But the Bible speaks of one world govt./currency in the end days.

I couldn't see any way for it to happen before, just because of how tight Americans are with ownership--American Pride and what not..but with the new administration (thru no fault..I don't think they're trying to make it happen or anything) will work together with international efforts on this issue, because they've always worked more with the UN, whereas the former would have fought it tooth and nail.

Regardless of the narrow opinion of some 'protectionist' and 'isolasionist' minded US citizens (every country has sme of those zealots), the current economic and financial world crisis is entirely US made.

So, here you have countries other than US whom suffer from a global situation which not only is costing 'zillions' to 'pump' back up, but they have to deal with the cost of radical devaluation of their currencies against US$.

Simply put,

... in a global situation of National debtors (western world countries)
... needing to borrow on international markets
... to cover the stimulation packages
... needed to pump up their economy because of US wrecklessness,

the lending nations (largely China, and other 'anonymous' sources) will prefer endorsing US debt SIMPLY BECAUSE it is the 'preferred' world's reserve currency.

You have to go back to WWII to make some sort of sense of this anomaly. Europe, lead by GB, was the Financial and economic powerhouse of the time. Gold and the 'Sterling Pound' were the currencies of choice. We all know the 'pounding' GB's pound got and substituting the US$ (rising star of the day) to the SP felt like the right thing to do at the time.

The other rising star of WWII days was the USSR. Of course Western Countries (mainly Europe) had no hesitation in backing the USA over the USSR as the World Superpower replacing the then 'healing their wounds' former superpower GB.

Completely artificial situation, that the US benefited from??? You bet. Is it wrong? No, it was the call of the day.

But that was more than 60 years ago. Is it borderline 'abuse of privileges past' in today's context, YOU BET!!!

I'm not suggesting any form of US bashing here. It is a situation where all of the western world showed extreme complacency, and this complacency is ironically the root of the 'greed and irresponsible' financial and economic chaos we are all facing today.

Without taking sides, if you turned the tables, I am confident you would understand the silent as well vocal determination most world nations are showing to correct this world problem.

Oh! and by the way, there is no downside with sharing WR currency with other nations. On the contrary!

As it stands today, the only 'privilege' this confers to the US is that it will be the largest debtor standing, and last nation to come out of the hell hole, if it gets out.
That a Nation (US) keeps finding other nations to buy their debt is only half of the equation. You have to pay the piper somewhere along the line!!!

We are irreversibly engaged in a WORLD ECONOMY!!!
We can't keep addressing it with COLONIAL AND IMPERIALIST views (addressed to the Western world mentality a whole)!!!

No bashing. Just a serious reality check.

I think Obama gets it. And I only hope enough of the 'we the people' get it also.

Without 'we the people', no amount of
'getting it' by a political leader will make much difference.

By itself Russia isn't very credible. (I wouldn't think.) But they are pretty close with China and Iran. If China and Iran backed this than it would probably happen...

Well written Voileazar. I agree with you. There is no downside, just shifting--and our economic crises is weighted on what we do about it, not how this all turns out)

Thank you 'skad' !

yes, you've put a lot of light on this for me...
thank you
i understand ....i think
i still can't help but wonder if it will hurt us
i agree that Obama 'gets it'
i just hope he has the power enough to pull us out

You know, a couple years ago i would have never believed it. As time goes on legislation after legislation, and event after event, we are all pushing pretty hard in that direction.

it's like birthpains, huh? Matthew 24:8 uses the word sorrows, which can be translated to birthpains. They start off slow and sporadic, then intensify..the signs that is. Pretty neat)

Well, i certainly hope Obama "gets it". Unfortunately no one has really seen any evidence of this. But we won't unless a new policy is worked out. All of his previously talked about policies put us on the very same economic path we've been walking. Basically increasing our debt drastically to keep us afloat is the plan.

Our monetary policy needs to undergo a bit of a "change" for the long run though. Yes, we do live in a world economy, and yes it is crashing, and yes, we are a major contributor to this. we need to imporve our own economy first. The fiat monetary system needs to be replaced by something a bit more stable.

Truth is Obama doesn't have the power to change much of anything. He, like every other president since 1913, is a victim of the banks. The banks control the world's economy not the government. The Federal Reserve is our private bank, and so far according to many congress members, they are keeping congress in the dark while they are having meetings with central banks around the world. It is up to them where "we the people" go from here.