Towards a Global Currency for a Global Economy: Proposals for the G20 Summits

The necessity for a global currency for the global economy was recognized as early as in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference and after an over 60-year experimenting with various settings, the issue is on the policy agenda again. The recent global crisis highlighted the limitations of the use of a national currency as global reserve currency and there is a call for a new international currency with a stable value and supply to secure global financial stability. The Stiglitz Report by the United Nations proposes a new global monetary framework with an international reserve currency and a global issuer and this proposal could serve as a basis for discussions on the global financial architecture at G20 meetings.