A golden opportunity for monetary reform! Golden for whom?

FT.com / Comment / Opinion - A golden opportunity for monetary reform: "A golden opportunity for monetary reform
By Robert Skidelsky November 9 2010 22:20 | Last updated: November 9 2010 22:20


Three cheers for Robert Zoellick. Writing in the FT this week, the World Bank president set out an ambitious agenda for the Group of 20 leading economies to “rebalance demand” and “spur growth”. He recognises that the reduction of current account imbalances is a necessary condition for a non-protectionist trading system...

This was addressed by Keynes’s proposal for capital controls (to guard against capital flight) and, more imaginatively, to create a new international reserve asset that he called “bancor” (short for “bank money”), which would replace gold as the ultimate reserve asset of the system. Gold would remain as a reference point for the value of bancor, thus limiting the capacity of the ICB to create credit – which seems similar to Mr Zoellick’s idea. Keynes’s famous description of the gold standard as a “barbarous relic” does not quite capture his opinion of the metal, which he thought would be useful as a constitutional monarch but disastrous as a despot..."


Norton's comment: It is a golden opportunity for the power brokers, bankers and families associated with the IMF.............not for the 98 plus percent of people in the World that are working for these folks!