Currency shapes everything from daily transactions to global trade, yet most people rarely think about why we have different currencies in the first place. The idea of a world currency surfaces ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about economic policy for the 21st century. At a G8 world currency meeting in 2009, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev ...

In the world today there are about 180 different currencies in use. Some outvalue the dollar while others are literally not worth the paper they’re printed on. In countries experiencing high ...

This new currency would consist of a basket of major Western currencies weighted by GDP, and would replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Confidence in the world’s reserve currency is in doubt, leaving an opening for alternatives like the euro. But it won’t be easy.

A unified global currency could transform trade but faces complex economic and political hurdles.