Image by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage)

A global currency for a globalized world — that’s the proposal of Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbaev, which he made during an informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Almaty earlier this month. He suggested calling it the “akmetal”, a word coined from the Greek “acme” (“supreme”) and “capital.” Yeah, I know, it sounds suspiciously like “alchemy”, causing one to wonder if Nazarbaev is engaging in any private John Lennon-style chemical concoctions.  Anyway, he also said that once implemented, the phrase “akmetalism” could actually replace “capitalism” as the description of the world’s dominant economic system. I’m not sure how a currency can qualify as an ideology, but Nazarbaev ain’t nothing if not a dreamer.

Actually, this idea isn’t new. Nazabaev’s previously proposed a common currency for Central Asia, which I think is even less likely than a global one. Perhaps sensing the same, in February 2009 he published the essay, “Keys To The Crisis,” where he argued for a common currency as the solution to the Great Recession.  But before Nazarbaev there was John Maynard Keynes, the granddaddy of Obamaconomics, who proposed a world central bank and a global currency called “bancor“. (Really, I don’t know where they get these terrible names…)

Incidentally, a kind of world currency already sort of exists. There’s “Wocu“, which may sound like the name of a Jedi knight but actually is a standardized basket of the currencies of the 20 largest economies. It’s used as a reference currency for investors. And then there’s the IMF’s “special drawing rights” (SDR), which pulls of the remarkable feat of sounding blander than “bancor”. Anyway, it’s a favorite of China. The Wall Street Journal describes it as:

[A] kind of synthetic currency created by the IMF in the 1960s. Its value is determined by a basket of major currencies. Originally, the SDR was intended to serve as a shared currency for international reserves, though that aspect never really got off the ground. These days, the SDR is mainly used in the IMF’s accounting for its transactions with member nations. [China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuanm] suggested countries could increase their contributions to the IMF in exchange for greater access to a pool of reserves in SDRs.

So, dear readers, what do you think – is all this akmetal talk just alchemy or is the idea really worth its weight in gold?

(PS — Schwartz’s funky image there is of ancient Greek Bactrian coinage on top of modern Kazakh tenge on top of the world. That’s Demetrius I, but because some religious believers consider any talk of one world currencies and governments signs of the Antichrist or Dajjal, I think his crown of elephant tusks and horns is a nice touch.)

(PPS — If you’re looking for my own answer to my question, read my thoughts about why the European Union is uncomfortably similar to the Soviet Union.)