Danse du scalp autour du Dieu-dollar

C’est un développement intéressant, dans la mesure de l’acte d’“officialisation” impliqué, qui est une proposition technique mettant complètement en cause le statut du dollar. La proposition vient d’une commission d’étude de l’ONU, qui la présentera officiellement le 25 mars.

C’est Reuters qui, le 18 mars, nous confie la chose, sous la plume de son European Investment Correspondant, Jeremy Gaunt, qui a obtenu les données réunies par la commission.

«A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.

»Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket. Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.

»“It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency,” he said. Central banks hold their reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated as the most convincing store of value – though its rate has wavered in recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external deficits.

»Some analysts said news of the U.N. panel's recommendation extended dollar losses because it fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar holdings. “Speculation that major central banks would begin rebalancing their FX reserves has risen since the intensification of the dollar's slide between 2002 and mid-2008,” CMC Markets said in a note.»

Ainsi la danse du scalp autour du dollar prend-elle un tour officiel, en étant introduite dans les circuits de réflexion internationaux et institutionnels. C’est une avancée importante, dans une époque de conformisme où, par conséquence aveuglante, les formes jouent un très grand rôle. L'ONU n'a pas fini d'être utile.

Mis en ligne le 20 mars 2009 à 18H30