Errrr - I meant EUR550m ($758m) not $550m for World Bank's latest bond. (Maybe it's time to revisit the idea of a common currency; would save a lot of confusion. And typos.)

I know it's not fashionable in these post-crisis days, but have you ever thought of all the individual time and effort that gets saved when you replace a hodge-podge collection of bitsy currency rates with one? About the huge risk management - and paperwork - load it would from business as international trade flows grow as a percentage of the world economy?

 

As eminent Harvard economist, Professor Richard Cooper says, "by eliminating monetary and exchange rates as sources of asymmetric shocks among participating countries, a common currency will conduce to more stable economic activity ...."

We've learnt from the Euro's growing pains what to do and not to do; it's not rocket science. We could still keep local currency names for patriotic nostalgia; as many countries have done when pegging their currencies to the Dollar or the Euro.

Time to start thinking about a Dollar/Euro/Yen/Yuan/Real currency union. Serious.

Then we wouldn't have to worry about currency typos.