ALBA TRADE ALLIANCE PLEDGES TO GIVE UP U.S. DOLLAR

ALBA Trade Alliance Pledges to Give Up the U.S. Dollar
December 21, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com

As talk of the declining role of the U.S. dollar grows louder globally, a Latin American alliance led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is doing something about it. The Latin American and Caribbean member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (alba) have decided to drop the dollar as the currency of trade between them. In its place, they will use a newly created currency called the sucre.

Chávez originated the idea, and sees it as a way to diminish Venezuela’s trade links to the United States. The first sucre transaction has already been initiated between Venezuela and Cuba on a consignment of rice, but the financial mechanism isn’t to become fully operational until January.

The sucre takes its name from the 19th-century South American hero Antonio Jose de Sucre, and the word is also a Spanish acronym for Sistema Unificado de Compensacion de Pagos Reciprocos (Unified System of Reciprocal Compensation Payments).

Back in July, Trumpet columnist Robert Morley wrote, “What do China, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Germany have in common? These countries most often can’t agree on anything. But they are united in one strange—and ominous—way. They blame the U.S. for wrecking the global economy. And they think the dollar is the wrecking ball.”

In the few months since then, India has taken great strides away from the dollar, and other nations are following suit, including this latest move by the countries of alba.

America’s leaders appear blind to the looming revolt against the dollar. As economies around the globe continue to reel from economic downturn, unemployment levels are soaring. The jobless are calling for action, and guilty politicians are searching for scapegoats. The first step, blaming the U.S. and its currency for the recession, is well underway. •\\

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