New global financial architecture needed to end trade surplus fixation: Piketty
Economist proposes central bank and currency under the UN to remove fears that ‘world financial markets are going to eat your currency’
An initiative designed to tackle inequality and climate change could benefit China by reinventing global financial and trade institutions and liberating countries from constantly chasing trade surpluses and foreign reserves, French economist and inequality specialist Thomas Piketty said.
“All the discussion about trade that we’ve seen with [US President Donald] Trump … all the fear that you see everywhere, that is a very, very serious concern … one of the biggest problems we have today is that we need a new international currency,” Piketty told the South China Morning Post ahead of the report’s publication.
The researchers proposed setting up a United Nations central bank to replace the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and issuing a new international currency – the United Nations currency (UNC) – plus a new international clearing union.