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Whenever I have to discuss money on a global scale (for
example, "The global DNA sequencing market is..."), I am
left in a quandary.
If I say "£500 billion", that seems very parochial unless I'm
writing for an English audience. I might say "€600 billion",
but I have an uneasy feeling that
there may be people
outside of Europe who would be befuzzled.
As a result, I reluctantly lapse into American currency and
say "$700 billion". Because Americans invented large
numbers, this seems to be the only generally accepted
currency for discussions on global finances.
So, I propose we invent a new notional currency,
specifically for the purpose of country-independent
discussions of money. No doubt a better name can be found
than "ICU" (international currency unit). ICUs would not be
traded, and nobody would worry too much about how their
currency fluctuated by a few percent here or there against
the ICU, but they'd be handy for sort of vague large-
number discussions.
Wikipedia: Special Drawing Rights
http://en.wikipedia...cial_drawing_rights
ISO Code XDR, used as the unit of account by the IMF. [zen_tom, Jul 09 2013]
[link]
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M'lud, most hospitals here in the colonies have a ward
called the Intensive Care Unit. Like many of my fellow idiot
Americans, I have had several visits to various ICUs and not
once have I enjoyed my stay. Prithee consider a different
acronym. |
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International Money Unit? Inertial Measurement
Units aren't talked about much in the relevant context. |
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International Unit of
Currency? |
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What about the BTS (Bowl of Tomato Soup)? |
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Whatever, but metric please. |
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Why bother with a unit at all? “Global sales for 2034 are forecast to be 400,000 billion!”. Dollars, Euros, zloty, makes little difference. |
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Seems like this has been suggested by the Chinese
and oil interests before. And _everything_ is traded.
If there is a market for bear bile, there is likely a
market for a globe-standard currency reference. |
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/reluctantly lapse into American / |
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A little token reluctance allows you to keep your dignity. Don't worry - people will know you are not actually American by your charming fluency with the language. |
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//"€600 billion"// sp. €600 milliard. |
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Even better would be a measure that is fairly stable over time; "in today's money", for example, still leaves me checking the dates and doing a quick calculation to allow for inflation. Gold, silver, or Big Macs would do. |
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But I can't endorse your idea, because it is another instance of "There are too many standards. Let's solve the problem by creating a new standard." |
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I'm not sure what you're worried about,
[MaxwellBuchanan], we're printing enough for
everyone. |
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I think as [spidermother] points out, you already
have at least two such currencies, one being gold,
and the other one being the dollar. The rest I
believe is purely the minor provincial resentment,
wholly out of character for one purporting to discuss
anything on a global scale :) |
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Hmmm - OK, point taken about too many
standards. ("I love standards - there are so many
to choose from.") |
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Gold is a nice idea, but "ounces of gold" is
cumbersome, and the major currency units are
too small to be referred to conveniently. Maybe
define a milliOunce (which would be a glorious
unit, melding Imperial and metric), abbreviated
mZ, which would be roughly equal to one dollar,
euro or pound. |
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//people will know you are not actually American
by your charming fluency with the language.//
Cheers, old bean. |
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I think around here we like to call it *dead presidents*. |
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