Kazakh President Proposes Single World Currency

The Kazakh president has found a way to alleviate the world's economic woes:

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called for the creation of a single world currency called the "acmetal" to fight the global financial crisis.

"In our view, we must create a single world currency under the aegis of the United Nations," Mr Nazarbayev said, a day before a major economic conference opens in his Central Asian country.

"We must make a transition to an absolutely new global currency system based on legitimacy and, in view of all countries, one single monetary system," he told a meeting of the Eurasian Association of Universities.

This is the first time Mr Nazarbayev has spoken publicly about the need for a single world currency although he has previously written about it.

He first called for the creation of a world-wide currency, to be called "acmetal" -- a combination of "acme," a Greek word meaning the peak or the best, and "capital" in an article published last month.

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Genghis Khan did something similar in 1236, when the Mongols issued paper money throughout the empire, which by then included parts of China and today's Russia.

-- Luke Allnutt