How About a Global Currency?

It's almost a truism to say that membership in the euro exacerbated the Greek crisis. The thinking goes like this: Because Greece doesn't have its own currency, it couldn't increase its competitiveness and boost growth through devaluation. Although devaluation is a valuable instrument, I think most countries and companies would benefit if the world, not just Europe, used a single currency.

Today's fragmented financial world is unfair. On the one hand, there's Denmark with such a glut of currency, local and foreign, that its central bank's key deposit rate is minus 0.75 percent and companies are considering overpaying their taxes because the Tax Ministry pays 1 percent interest on the excess. Then there's Greece, which has had to limit withdrawals from automated teller machines to 60 euros a day because of a severe cash crunch.