Euro in danger, Europe races for debt solution

By GREG KELLER and PAN PYLAS and PAUL WISEMAN

PARIS (AP) - European leaders rushed Monday to stop a rampaging debt crisis that threatened to shatter their 12-year-old experiment in a common currency and devastate the world economy as a result.

One proposal gaining prominence would have countries cede some control over their budgets to a central European authority. In a measure of how rapidly the peril has grown, that idea would have been unthinkable even three months ago.

World stock markets, glimpsing hope that Europe might finally be shocked into stronger action, staged a big rally. The Dow Jones industrial average in New York rose almost 300 points. In France, stocks rose 5 percent, the most in a month.

More relevant to the crisis, borrowing costs for European nations stabilized. They had risen alarmingly in recent weeks - in Greece, then in Italy and Spain, then across the continent, including in Germany, the strongest economy in Europe.Read more.

Will The US Dollar Crash And Be Gone ?

Hantu Laut

Will the US dollar crash and become an insignificant currency? Some pundits have predicted that the use of the dollar would decline and eventually be abandoned as an international currency.

At the moment the dollar is the most important international reserve currency.Many countries pegged their currency to the dollar and some even used it as their de facto currency.It is the currency used most in international trade transactions.Most countries kept their international reserves in dollars.

I believe the world is not yet ready to abandon the dollar or move to a multi-currency monetary system.The next most important currency after the dollar is the Euro which had taken over some of the dollar's role but were not big enough to displace the dollar significantly.Even Airbus, a consortium of European corporations still uses the dollar in its pricing.













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The above chart shows the percentage of global currencies. The currency that has the potential to replace the dollar would be the Euro.A complete replacement is not envisaged in the near future.The Euro, successor of the German mark which used to be the second most important currency after the dollar had taken a bigger role in foreign exchange reserves.The dollar still maintained a leading role in being the most important currency.

About 64% of foreign reserves are still held in dollars.The importance of the dollar came about after the Bretton Wood Agreement to adopt a monetary policy that maintained an exchange rate of each country's currency within a fix value - plus or minus 1% - interm of gold.

In 1971 the Nixon administration abandoned the Bretton Woods system without consulting members of the international monetary system or even with his own State Department.This was later to be known as the 'Nixon Shock'

The US suspension of convertibility from dollars to gold created a situation whereby the US dollar became the reserve currency of all the nations that had signed the agreement.

You can't trust the US, can you, when its interest is at stake it will do anything including breaking international agreement.The Iraqi War is another example where it failed or refused to respect international law, going to war without UN Security Council approval.

With the current financial meltdown in the US which have affected other nations many people expect the dollar to lose some of its value.Strange as it is the dollar had appreciated against many major currencies.Against the Euro it has strenghtened to 1.26 as at 22 November.The rate before the meltdown was hovering around 1.57.

The US budget and trade deficit are worrying signs that it may not be able to meet its financial obligations and the dollar may take a heavy beating making it worthless.It has happened before under Nixon will it happen again? The US keep printing its currency to be sent overseas to finance its war and trades?

The ideal situation would be to have two major currencies.The Euro would be the only potential currency that can fulfill the need not to be fully dependent on the dollar.

A good start to bring other currency into international transactions is to switch some of the petrodollar to Euro and eventually introduce the Euro into other international trade transactions and currency reserves.

In the meantime, the dollar is still king.

Pak Lah:It's 'sap sap soi' no need to apologise

Hantu Laut

As they say in Hakka 'sap sap soi'. It's a small matter you don't need to apologise at all.Your apology does not make any different.The question is whether the price agreed upon is a fair price to pay for those machines. The meagre difference of RM93 million is not something you should worry about.What you should worry about is whether there were element of corruption or payment of excessive commissions to a third party.

Pak Lah has apologised over a small mistake he made on the price of the Eurocopter.You can read it here.

It is ridiculous that the boys at the Ministry of Defence want the Prime Minister to correct such petty amount and if they think that would satisfy the thirst of the conspiracy theorists, they are awfully wrong.