The color of money: Kazakh tenge (photo by Irene2005, Creative Commons usage)

Okay, so the photo is of tenges, not soms, I know, I know.  But “Super-Som” sounds a lot prettier than “Super-Tenge”, the far more likely candidate for the foundation of a common Central Asian currency, and, besides, you get my point: could the global recession make the idea of a single currency for the ‘Stans more attractive?

An atmosphere of monetary despondency has descended upon Kazakhstan after the recent deregulation of the tenge (ENG), says the Roberts Report.  Interestingly, one popular topic of discussion is the fate of the American dollar.  People seem particularly interested in the “Amero”:

There was one topic of conversation in Almaty, however, that I have never heard in Washington. Ironically, it is a topic that focuses on the United States and the fate of the US dollar.  Numerous people I ran into in Almaty were anxious to ask me about the state of the Amero.  If you do not what the Amero is, don’t worry – neither did I. According to people in Almaty, the United States is in the process of scraping the dollar as its currency and converting to a new unified monetary system with Mexico and Canada. Get it? Euro….Amero. This rumor has struck fear into many people who worry about what to do with their dollar savings. Should they sell them to the bank? Into which other currency should they convert these dollars? (ENG)

The Amero is a conspiracy theory, one which the Boston Globe describes as “a paranoid vision for our time”.  The central idea is that an evil committee of masterminds are planning the end of the United States by merging it with Canada and Mexico, as part of a larger plan toward world domination (ENG).

Just how many people believe in the conspiracy is unknown, but one blogger has been surveying the internet to find out.  As of today he has collected over 1000 responses, 63% of which are convinced, 21% not, and 15% unsure (ENG).

But I digress.  The salient point of Kazakh “Amerophobia” is that a universal currency is on the minds of at least some in the region, albeit not in a very happy sense.  However, with the exception of Mikhail Kasyanov, who in 2003 proposed that the Russian Ruble become the common currency for post-Soviet Eurasia, the idea seems to have never been seriously considered, positively or negatively, by the policy-makers and peoples of the region.  But new challenges require new thinking.

Loony?  You bet.  Impossible to implement?  Not if there’s real political will behind the initiative.  Good for the region?  That’s the million-som question.  Let neweurasia know what you think!