The same IMF paper identifies 208 currency crises in which the currency fell more than 30% with a 10% acceleration over the prior year. That depreciation presumably was against the dollar or other related major currency benchmark. This is gold-plated proof of the fundamental flaws in the system of fiat currencies.

Now, if we use gold as the benchmark, as I think we should, then we can see that every currency in the world is in crisis, using their definition! We are witnessing a joint systemic and worldwide banking crisis and a currency crisis. This has now notched up from a banking system bad debt issue into a bad sovereign debt issue that, in turn, amplifies the banking system bad debt issue since the banks hold the sovereign debts. Euroland is now about to try more money and bond issuance and more sovereign guarantees to stop the problem, and FED officials here are making more noises about buying mortgage debts again. The FED will almost surely get in the Euroland act if it is called upon to do so. Hence, the crisis has elevated and graduated into a phase of either another bout of renewed inflation of reserves and debt or severe monetary disruption and depression, or both in some messy process. None of these solutions are going to work, of course.

The Best of Michael S. Rozeff