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To: Maurice Winn who wrote (22916)	8/20/2002 9:02:28 PM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 74559

Hi Maurice, Sad, and the situation is not improving, and is in fact getting worse, because the Maestros are not only trying to work a financial system they no longer understand, but also trying to fiddle with a geo-political scheme that has defied all fiddling for a few thousand years: Message 17900085 Message 17900092 Message 17900447 Message 17900496 Message 17900502 A skin boil is sometimes best left along so that internal antibodies can work on it. Scratching the boil is not wise. ... and by the way, I agree with you that, Message 17900387 ... in the greater scheme of things, Zimbabwe is more preferable than a lot of alternatives, especially given that Zimbabwe, at its worst, cannot make too big a splash. Although I am not sure breaking up Afghanistan into a bunch of Zimbabwes at this stage will improve matters. Chugs, Jay

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (22916)	8/20/2002 10:01:06 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Hi Maurice, how about this 'terra'-ble idea, instead ;0) "Commodity-backed currency answer to monetary woes" markets.scmp.com Wednesday, August 21, 2002 Commodity-backed currency answer to monetary woes REUTERS in Kuala Lumpur Bernard Lietaer says he has found a better answer to the instability of the world's financial markets - a global currency fully backed by a basket of physical commodities such as crude oil or wheat. Mr Lietaer, who helped create the single European currency when working for the Belgian central bank, said his "terra" currency was inflation-proof, more stable and could be created either by nation states or an alliance of big corporations. The 60-year-old author of the best-selling book The Future of Money said the terra could be developed much faster than the 23 years spent on the European currency unit (ecu) - precursor of the euro. "It took us 23 years from the design of the ecu to the euro implementation," he said. "I think we are going to be faster on [the terra] because the time is less flexible. I think the pressures are higher." Mr Lietaer, now a fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Resources at the University of California at Berkeley, is in Malaysia this week for a conference on the viability of the Islamic gold dinar as a trade payments system. Once named "the world's top currency trader" by Business Week, Mr Lietaer's speciality is monetary innovations which he elaborated on in the book, already published in English, German and Japanese. Mr Lietaer said the world monetary system had several systemic flaws, such as the lack of an international standard of value and the pro-cyclical money creation by the banking system. He said multinationals could deal with the problems by turning to the terra, which as yet only existed within a computer model in a German economic research institute. "We are not changing something, we are adding something. That's why I am most optimistic. It's easier to start something that can work parallel with the existing system. I don't have the illusion of trying to reform the existing system," he said. Mr Lietaer, who predicted Britain would finally adopt the euro in about 2005, said the terra would exist alongside three regional currencies - the euro, the US dollar and the possible single Association of Southeast Asian Nations currency also incorporating the Japanese yen or Chinese yuan. How does the terra work? Terra issuers would back it with stocks of real commodities such as copper, rubber or palm oil. It will be conceptually similar to the fully backed gold standard, but in the case of the terra the backing would consist not of one single commodity but a dozen, including gold. "Because it is fully backed by a physical inventory of commodities, the terra would be very robust and credible payment unit," Mr Lietaer said. One key feature which set it apart from previous commodity basket currency concepts was that the cost of storage of the physical commodities would be applied to the terra bearer. This worked out to 3.5 per cent a year. "In other words, you have a demurrage charge. Demurrage is exactly the opposite of interest rate. So it's time-related charge for keeping the goods." One advantage of that is instead of hanging on to their money to build up interest, people would have a financial incentive to invest and keep investing. Mr Lietaer said the terra concept would also be a better solution than Malaysia's idea of using gold reserves to settle bilateral trade balances with other Islamic nations. Malaysia has proposed the adoption of an electronic currency - the Islamic dinar - as a common denominator for its fellow Muslim nations to value their trade. Mr Lietaer said the flaw in the idea was the potential for sharp swings in the bullion price that Malaysia and its partners would be powerless to contain. "So, if you have the price of gold going from US$300 to $800 an ounce, what will you do? You can certainly start this. Will it be acceptable on a large scale? I'm less convinced." Malaysia hopes to start the Islamic gold dinar system next year with a few other countries.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (22916)	8/21/2002 12:28:02 AM
From: AC Flyer	Respond to of 74559

Mq: Here's the key to the gold dinar: >>In the early stages, the gold dinar will not exist in physical form and will be assigned a value in gold. “For example, if 1 gold dinar is equivalent to 1 ounce of gold, and the price of 1 ounce of gold is US$290 (US$1 = RM3.80), then the value of 1 gold dinar will be US$290 or equivalent in other currencies, based on prevailing exchange rates,” he said.<< Follow the logic: Gold dinar does not exist - is in fact just a normalized foreign exchange unit - whose value will be measured in dollars. i.e. no physical Dinar - no gold involved - just a foreign exchange shorthand for 290 (or whatever) dollars. Ho ho ho. I wonder how the folks who hate the US reconcile this with their love of our currency. Osama bin Laden would regularly show up at the Mad Mullah's Taliban HQ with a suitcase full of nice crisp greenbacks. This is what happens when you replace rational thinking with religious zealotry and insane ideology. You just can't beat Anglo-Saxon pragmatism.