This “occasional paper” from the European Central Bank was released on February 2011. So the European bankers have known for over a year that a financial crisis will occur that will necessitate changes in the IMS including:
Finally, the question has been recently raised again of the role of gold in the IMS. (Zoellick, 2010) argues that the IMS “should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, defl ation and future currency values”. While this would not, of course, imply any sort of formal role for gold as a revived anchor for the IMS, Zoellick sees gold as an alternative store of value, especially if uncertainty about the future role of different currencies were to prevail during the period of transition towards a truly multipolar currency system.
It is good to know that Europe will be taking care of the transfer of the dollar to a basket of currencies and gold.
David DeGerolamo
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