Notice the only 2 in the front row who are not waving...
Speaking yesterday at an IMF conference in Washington, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF, warned of growing "global imbalances" in currencies and excess reserves. As a measure to combat these imbalances, he said that the SDR (Special Drawing Right) should begin replacing the dollar as the global reserve currency. He went further to suggest the benefits of issueing SDR-denominated bonds to replace Treasuries, and in a related report, the IMF even touts the benefits of private trading of SDR-denominated bonds and notes. You can just imagine the possibilities for creating arbitrage and mayhem under that scenario, especially as the component currencies of the SDR would only be re-balanced on a weekly or daily basis, at best.
This chart shows how the IMF projects the gradual replacement of the dollar with greater holdings of SDR's:
Over time, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said that there may be a greater role for the IMF’s international reserve asset, called the Special Drawing Right, or SDR, to contribute to a more stable monetary system. Although a number of obstacles remain in the way, increasing the global stock of SDRs could help alleviate global imbalances by reducing the need for an excessive buildup of reserves, he said. He added that issuing SDR-denominated bonds could create a potentially new class of reserve assets, and that use of the SDR to price global trade and denominate financial assets would provide a buffer from exchange rate volatility.
Read more here...
Dominique Strauss-Kahn Managing Director of the IMF.
