Think the U.S. Dollar is in the toilet now?

[tjwash]

Korea, China, Japan to Kickstart Single Asian Currency

Korea, China and Japan have agreed to start joint research at government level on introducing an Asian single currency comparable to the euro. Finance Minister Han Duck-soo made the agreement with his Chinese counterpart Jin Renqing and Japan’s Sadakazu Tanigaki on the sidelines of the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in India.

This is the first time governments have decided to make concrete efforts toward the launch of the Asian currency unit (ACU), which only exists as a theoretical construct. So far, calls have mostly come from the private sector.

The three countries will set up a research team staffed by government officials and experts at public and private research institutes by the end of the year and come up with a framework for the ACU. The finance ministers agreed the research efforts should start at the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers' Meeting.

While the ministers were on the same page in their optimism about the three countries’ economic prospects this year, they warned that continuing high oil prices and rising interest rates worldwide pose a threat to the regional economy.

[acmejack]

1. I think there is too much animosity between these players

for them to accomplish this in the foreseeable future.

[tjwash]

2. I was thinking that, but...

...If Germany, Italy, and France can get along well enough to be in Euros together, I don't put it past these countries to be able to put their animosity aside, and make this happen.

[xchrom]

3. maybe -- it's worth watching.

but why wouldn't india want in on ground zero?

[SoCalDem]

4. South Asia ( India Pakistan, Bangladesh) is very different

in their culture from China,Korea, Japan, Viet Nam etc..

.. it really does make sense for regional "neighbors" to start looking out for each other's interests. As odd as it seems, there is some safety if your currencies are tied together. This might be the way they can come to a common agreement.

I really think we would ALL be better off if we went back to producing our own goods and quit wasting so mich oil-energy transporting stuff all over the globe that could be produced cheaper right where they are to be used/bought/sold..

Globalization is little more than a gigantic scam to help "middlemen" get rich.

[xchrom]

5. i don't disagree with a lot of what you say.

india's economy though is growing at a pace and sophisticated depth that makes it very differnt from it's neighbors and -- in a weird way more like china.

however india does do more of teh one thing you advocate for all of us. it wants to produce as much of it's own stuff as it can.

interesting.

a single currency in this case may have the inadvertant effect of these ''third world'' countries trading more with each other -- which should have been one of the pathways for them to begin with -- rather than first world countries and their theories of ''economies of scale'' trapping workers in low paid jobs.

[tjwash]

6. This does not bode well for us because the chinese keep...

...buying up our debt as well