Suddenly Everybody Wants A Global Currency

Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was just as shocked as most of us when Treasury Secretary and tax dodge Timothy Geithner sat in the Council on Foreign Relations meeting yesterday and said he was "open" to a proposal by China to replace the dollar with a new global currency. China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan called for a global currency on Tuesday.

Kazakh's President Nursultan Nazarbayev last week floated his own air biscuit on the topic (proposing the acmetal), and Vladimir "You Can't Take the KGB Out Of The Boy" Putin said Russia would push for a new global currency at the next G20 meeting in London on April 2nd. Now the UN has suddenly poked its head up and is pushing for a new global reserve currency system to replace the dollar, as well. So, China, Russia, and now the UN are circling like buzzards, watching our youthful, energetic and woefully under-qualified president tread water.

Congresswoman Bachmann lept into the fray yesterday after Geithner's remarks. From her website:

In response to suggestions by China, Russia, and other countries around the world calling on the International Monetary Fund to explore a multi-national currency, U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (MN-6) has introduced a resolution that would bar the dollar from being replaced by any foreign currency.

“Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked Secretary Geithner if he would denounce efforts to move towards a global currency and he answered unequivocally that he would," said Bachmann. "And President Obama gave the nation the same assurances. But just a day later, Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table. I want to know which it is. The American people deserve to know."

Asked today about a currency proposal from China at a Council on Foreign Relations event, Secretary Geithner stated he was open to supporting it. Despite attempts to clarify his remarks later in the day, the unguarded initial response calls into question his true intentions.

Although Title 31, Sec. 5103 USC prohibits foreign currency from being recognized in the U.S., the President has the power to engage foreign governments in treaties, and the President is principally responsible for the interpretations and implementation of those treaties according to the Constitution. As a result, legislation prohibiting the President and Treasury from issuing or agreeing that the U.S. will adopt an international currency would need to come in the form of a Constitutional Amendment differentiating a treaty used to implement an international currency in the U.S. from other types of treaty agreements.

All of this talk of replacing the dollar with a new global currency system has suddenly occurred in the span of less than two weeks. And we'll see if Bachmann's resolution even comes to the floor for a vote. Not likely.

Keep President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's remark in mind as the coming weeks unfold:

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Indeed.

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The Council on Foreign Relations is a think tank, a non-partisan organization made up of American and global leaders dedicated to educating policy makers, journalists, business people and students about international cultures, economies, policies and defense issues.

First started in 1917, the Council was formed of New York history and political scholars, assembled by President Woodrow Wilson. Their mission was to provide Wilson with guidance about post-World War I foreign policy. While Wilson had originally envisioned a British and American group of academics and diplomats, the Council eventually consisted of just over 100 New York manufacturers, attorneys and bankers, presided over by Nobel Peace Prize winner and then Secretary of State, Elihu Root.

The CFR publishes Foreign Affairs magazine, and their website lists their notable members, along with meeting dates and locations. It’s self-proclaimed goal is to increase America’s understanding of the world, and to contribute ideas to U.S. foreign policy. Annual reports on a wide array of topics are available to anyone.

These lofty goals are regarded with great suspicion by conspiracists, who frequently claim that the CFR, like the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission, is creating the policies that will lead to a one-world government – the New World Order. After Geithner's remarks this week, those suspicions will only grow.