History Repeats Itself
Less than a century ago, long before the independence from national systems of government, the world had a de facto global currency – the Gold standard.
The gold standard was so named because all important national currencies were referenced to it. The UK for example was referenced with sterling being 113 grains of pure gold. The philosophy behind the gold standard was that it provided lenders with an assurance that what they had advanced to borrowers would not be devalued by a devaluation of the currency.
The theory was all well and good, but in practice the distribution of gold between leading economies and the currencies exchange rate into gold and the competitiveness of those economies was poorly correlated.
The gold standard resulted in a period of boom and bust USA and France enjoying boom while bust in the UK. The Great depression brought about the demise of the gold standard.
However it is of growing common parlance that the world needs a global unit of exchange as a tool to reduce global imbalances exampled by the huge indebtedness of USA and the UK and the surpluses enjoyed by Asia. The governor of the Chinese central bank has himself expressed that there is a need to replace the dollar with a new reserve currency. The problems associated with introducing a global currency are all well known and include who would manage the currency and the checks that would have to be maintained especially on those charged with managing it.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s world finance was basically in the hands of four bankers. Hjalmar Schacht, head of the Reichbank; Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve; Emile Moreau of the Banque de France; and Montague Norman, governor of the Bank of England. Collectively they were the guardians and enforcers of the gold standard and ostensibly determined the prosperity and health of the global nations.
Together the four bankers transformed an economic depression into the Great Depression. Very much like today the bankers enjoyed virtual total independence; semi detached from elected politicians and without any real regulatory body to constrain their immense power.
The bankers gained celebrity appeal and were often hounded by the press who tracked their every move. The press’s attention was not welcome and Montague Norman circumvented attention to himself by adopting a pseudonym, Clarence Skinner, when travelling to meet his friend Benjamin Strong.
To be continued....
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