Beijing's Call Is The Latest To Get Away From Dlr

中国呼吁采用一种新的国际储备货币，这是使国际金融体系与美元脱钩的最新尝试。以往的此类努力之所以都未见效，实现这一转变的经济和政治障碍巨大是重要原因。中国央行行长周小川在周一发表的一篇文章中呼吁，国际社会要朝建立“超主权”储备货币的方向努力，这种货币不属于任何特定的国家。经济学家们说，此类计划会遇到两重障碍。第一重是政治障碍，因为拥有主导货币的国家──也就是美国──可能不愿放弃作为储备货币发行国所享有的好处。同样重要的还有经济障碍。现代史上唯一一次储备货币更迭发生在英镑和美元之间，这一进程持续了几十年。其间发生了两次世界大战，以及由无数民间参与者推动的国际商业行为转变。尽管美元有这样那样的缺陷，但作为国际储备货币它仍是有吸引力的，因为它是全球金融和贸易的通用语言。换句话说，它的吸引力是与有多少其他市场的参与者使用它成正比的。几十年来，无论是对希望购买美国国债的央行来说，还是对将大宗商品从拉美出口到亚洲的企业而言，美元一直是便于所有人使用的交易媒介。经济学家们说，要想推出一种新的全球储备货币，在这种货币被人们普遍接受之前，实际上需要有人补贴将买家和卖家聚集在一起的成本。加州大学伯克利分校的经济学家埃成格林(Barry Eichengreen)说，不会仅仅因为中国央行行长看好某种媒介货币，就会自动出现使用这种货币的规模庞大交易量巨大的市场。此外，超主权货币没有自然形成的流通范围，也就是说没有一个它可以自然获得市场接受的地方。经济学家们说，欧洲货币单位(ECU)在1979年被作为一种记帐单位创造出来，但却从未被普遍接受，直至20年后欧洲各国的政策制定者通过协调努力并花费巨额资金才将其转换成欧元。虽然欧元被普遍视为现代史上最成功的货币创新，但它在国际使用方面仍然远屈居于美元之下。当前这场全球金融危机也暴露了欧元与生俱来的弱点。中国央行行长周小川在周一的文章中提议，要扩大特别提款权(SDR)发挥的作用。由于美元地位的动摇，国际货币基金组织(IMF)于1969年创设了特别提款权，以此作为一种储备货币。特别提款权是一种记帐单位，其价值由一揽子主要货币决定。上世纪70年代初期，一些银行开始接受特别提款权存款，一些公司甚至发行了以特别提款权计价的债券。但特别提款权的市场却总是做不大，特别提款权目前的主要被用于给IMF与其成员国之间的交易记帐。哈佛大学(Harvard University)的经济学家弗兰克尔(Jeffrey Frankel)说，特别提款权最多也就是国际货币领域的世界语，根本就得不到使用。Joanna Slater相关阅读周小川提议创造新的国际储备货币 2009-03-24《周小川：关于改革国际货币体系的思考》全文 2009-03-23中国央行：须对国际货币体系进行改革 2009-03-23


China's call to shift to a new global reserve currency marks the latest attempt to wean the international financial system away from the U.S. dollar. There's a good reason why such efforts haven't worked in the past: The economic and political hurdles to such a transition are enormous.In an essay released Monday, China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, called for moving toward a 'super-sovereign' reserve currency, or one that doesn't belong to any particular country. Economists say the obstacles to such a plan fall into two categories. The first is political, since the country with the dominant currency -- namely the U.S. -- might be reluctant to give up the advantages that come with that status.Just as significant are economic stumbling blocks. The only previous shift from one reserve currency to another in the modern era -- from the British pound to the U.S. dollar -- unfolded over a series of decades. It took two world wars and major shifts in the conduct of international business by myriad private participants to accomplish.For all its faults, the dollar is attractive as a reserve currency because it is the common language of global finance and trade. In other words, its appeal is proportionate to how many other market players use it. For decades, the dollar has been a convenient medium of exchange for everyone from a central bank seeking to buy U.S. Treasury bonds to a business exporting commodities from Latin America to Asia.To jump-start a new global reserve currency, economists say, would require someone effectively subsidizing the cost of bringing buyers and sellers together for the time it takes the currency to gain traction.Large, deep, and highly traded markets involving a particular currency 'don't spring up spontaneously just because the Chinese central bank governor suggests this would be a good idea,' says Barry Eichengreen, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley.What's more, a supra-national currency has no natural constituency or home where it can gain gradual acceptance. The European Currency Unit, or ECU, was created as a unit of account in 1979 and never gained great acceptance, say economists, until a concerted effort -- and a great deal of money -- from European policy makers transformed it into the euro two decades later.Even the euro, widely viewed as the most successful currency innovation of modern times, remains a distant second to the dollar in international usage. The global financial crisis has also exposed the strains inherent in a shared currency.In his essay, China's Mr. Zhou proposed expanding the role of 'Special Drawing Rights,' or SDRs. They were created in 1969 by the International Monetary Fund to use as a reserve currency as the dollar tottered.SDRs are a kind of synthetic currency whose value is determined by a basket of major currencies. In the early 1970s, some banks took deposits denominated in SDRs and some companies even issued bonds in the currency. But the market always remained small, and the main use of SDRs today is to account for transactions between the IMF and its member nations.The SDR is 'basically the Esperanto, at best, of international currencies,' says Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at Harvard University, referring to the ill-fated attempt to create a common language. 'It's not at all used.'Joanna Slater