Do you think that China can save the global economy?

If you ask the Chinese themselves they are very reluctant to even think they can by themselves act as a global leader to pull everyone out of this. It is not because their size as a country and as an economic powerhouse doesn't allow them to do that but because they either don't want to or they don't have the expertise to play that role.

A shift of economic power is happening right now as Western economies are bleeding but that does not guarantee that the power to lead and save the world is also changing hands. Europe and the US still have the infrastructure and talent to recover and keep growing again.

Actually I have to agree that to the extent China is dependent for its export-led economic growth on the West, unless it works on fixing its own problems, it will slow down too.

Notice one more thing. I am not an economist but this observation puzzles me. The world economy is doing well on the surface and the US dollar is very weak. The world plunges into a crisis and the US dollar strengthens because suddenly the world has less faith in other economies pulling this through better than the US.

Stock markets are down because they operate short-term. If you are interested in where people keep their faith in the ability of national economies to pull this through looking at exchange rates is more insightful I think.

Anyone checked the value of the Russian Rouble or those of other emerging economies? It's on a free-fall...

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Single Currency

I have wondered many times what the meaning of the existence of multiple currencies? I think a single currency could have a lot of benefits like reducing the cost of economic transactions and making the pricing of good and services more effective. Also, it would end the currency speculation and the effects of it and would boost the economic activity among various countries.

71% of respondents in the poll would like to have a single currency.

I would like to have a single language before I had a single currency. The benefits to the world economy would be even larger than if you only had a single currency. More trade, more travel, more understanding, more cooperation. So if I had to choose between a single currency and a single language, I'd rather have a single language. A single language would inevitably lead to a single currency as the world would become one in terms of how people think. A single currency without a single language means the world can trade better than if it had multiple currencies but it doesn't become one. So what I want to say is that under a single currency the world improves, under a single language the world becomes one. Within this context, which would You rather have?

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