@AdamNTM.....I'm actually kind of slow. I'm rather embarrassed that I failed to notice this before now. If your theoretical framework views this crisis as having been engineered by the powerful to force the sheeple into a single global currency, then how does your theory deal with the fact that the crisis is actually taking us further away from a global currency by breaking up currency blocks. There is a significant probability that this crisis is going to end with a significantly reduced Eurozone and a devalued Dollar widens the gap between the greenback and the loonie. Even the Peso is appreciating against the Dollar and moving furhter from its long term trading range. The Swiss are desperately trying to keep the Franc tethered to the Euro and China's dirty peg is looking less rather than more sustainable. Currency zones are becoming harder to regulate, and the wage deflation in the Southern Europe is demonstrating for all to see the dangers of too much distributional dispersion in productivity growth within a currency block. Iceland and Ireland will probably be a textbook pair for the rest of our lives to examine the relative gains from different monetary regimes. It is clear as day that Iceland is looking better and better as time goes by.

Perhaps your theory is better than I give you credit for and it incorporated vicious beggar thy neighbor retaliatory devaluations to leave us all in race to the bottom hell, thereby producing a consensus for suprastate solutions. However, at the moment, events are pushing the Economics consensus to Friedman's multitude of flexibly exchanged currencies over Mundell's fixed exchange rates, which would have to be a transition state for the introduction of an expanded currency zone.

Also, is the gold standard isomorphic to your vision of a global currency or is your vision a solely government product of fiat creation?

Widen your view; this GLOBAL financial crisis will subsume the whole of civilization, and each country will be confronted with the spectre of collapse and isolationism, citizens will be made to dread this possibility more than anything else, until the masses are begging to see the establishment of a bona-fide World Bank. Insofar that everyone is going to run to gold as fiat currencies collapse, gold will likely be the international currency in the interim, until a new fiat currency can be established (SDR's?), but like I said, I'm just a crazy conspiracy theorist, time will tell...

Generally, in human history, crisis has not led to international openness and cooperation. I am generally of the view that institution building requires an hegemon, and again the world doesn't seem to be going that direction.

Listen carefully to the banksters, like the head of the IMF Lagarde, and other financial leaders, they're all saying the same thing, especially with regard to saving the Euro, "leaders will have cooperate, show unity, work together", the market is the hegemon you're looking for, hiding in plain sight...

So after going the first weekend, I went back to my local Occupy where ever protest on Sunday. One, the protest was much reduced, but two, the Marxist hardcore had created a mural on a building with "Shining Path" written on it.

If you go carryin' pictures of Chairman Mao,
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow.

And that goes double for President Gonzalo.

Given that Winter is Coming in Gopherland, I think the protest will quickly be withering away.

I have a friend in a northern US city who, on Facebook, liked the Occupy "City" page. I asked her what she liked about the occupy movement. Was she anti-Federal Reserve, anti-Capitalism, anti-War in Iraq or Afghanistan, anti-bailouts, etc. I asked because all of these positions are presented in this Occupy group.

She responded that she liked the fact Americans were getting off their butts and doing something. It doesn't matter that not everyone knows the issues, and you don't have to in order to complain that you don't like the current situation. She was just happy people have found their voice.

Her response pained me. You don't think it's important to know what you are protesting for or against? You don't think it's important to differentiate between anti-capitalism and, for example, pro-"clean earth"? Hmm....

I also want to know how these people are "doing" anything. Standing around outside doesn't change anything... I'd be amused to see how many of the protesters actually ever vote. It will be curious to see how many "I just despise bail-outs" Americans vote in 2012 for the presidential candidate who spearheaded said bail-outs. So much for that "voice."

Furthermore, I wonder if they can actually articulate their complaints. You don't actually have a "voice" if you don't know what you are talking about.

Last I checked I still have clean, hot water in which to bathe and more than two pairs of shoes. I also overeat more often than not, so I have trouble taking to the streets to complain "this isn't working for me." I think most Americans could use a good dose of time in a third-world country; it changes one's perspectives...

/end rant (for now)

@LoveDove, my criticism was that my local protesters did have a coherent message. Che is great, murderous, homophobic thug that he was. Disappointing but to be expected. The Shining Path, arguably the most profoundly evil mass ideology ever unleashed in the 20th Century, is something to be admired. To me for a protest as small as our local has gotten to hoist a banner for the Shining Path is simply inexcusable. It seems probable to me that Abimael Guzman in power would have made Pol Pot look like a piker.

+1 Lovedove