I've got some really cool friends that I can just pick up the phone and talk to.
One of them is a guy by the name of Clifford Bennett.
You probably don't know his name and wouldn't recognise him if you walked past him on the street…
…but he is one of the world's experts when it comes to the global economy and currencies.
I asked him earlier this week if I could share an article that he wrote for his private clients.
He agreed, here it is…
This guy is so far ahead of the curve that you're not going to hear about this in the main media.
Asian Single Currency Union: Is it time for a single currency for Asia and should Australia be involved?
This is just a brief sounding out of the issues I will cover in my address at the APEC Summit in Vladivostok on September 8th.
Let there be no mistake, the creation of a single currency in Asia is a real possibility over the next 10-15 years. The Euro was a 30 year process. Asia has the advantage of learning from Europe's lessons, the processes, and path, that was laid down.
The Euro is a success, and though this view runs contrary to mainstream media reports and consensus of the day, the fact is the currency is still, despite all the negative onslaught, 25% higher than when it was first floated.
The union has held through the most trying of times, and stands the region in good stead going forward. There is no doubt a lack of currency barriers has been a positive for intra-European trade, and while it has played a role in allowing excesses to develop in some specific cultural economies, the currency has equally played a role in bringing these excesses to account.
That is the European story, but the Asian story could be whole different kettle of fish.
It could be argued that cultural aspects are even more varied in Asia than Europe, but there is no doubting the strong work ethic existing in Asia. The business culture of Asia may well be best maximised through a single currency for the region.
It has been my view for many years that global growth is pre-eminetly driven by the development of intra-regional trade in the “new first world” of Asia and Latin America. Asia is several years, if not a couple of decades, ahead of Latin America in terms of smoothing a unique but highly effective version of capitalism. The addition of a single currency union in Asia would perhaps act as an effective after-burner to the multi decade robust growth environment already in place.
The degree of expanse of such a currency union is another discussion, but the inclusion of Australia must be considered a real possibility.
I am Australian, therefore I am Asian !
Australia is already highly integrated into our booming economic region through our resources industry, and to some degree in second place, our finance industry.
The success of the resources sector can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the miners themselves, and rather than being attacked by politicians, they deserve national accolades, but that is another subject, I digress.
The point about the resources sector is however that their success is a result of developing world best practice systems. It does help rather a lot that we are a perfectly gifted “doorstep of Asia” commodity producer.
In order for all our industries to successfully integrate into Asia, we need to be competitive in all areas, including taxation and currency.
The company tax rate needs to be 20% and not a cent higher so as to attract the badly needed capital to bring our industries to a world's best practice level akin to that of the mining industry. A regional currency of which we were apart would also seem to be a positive.
It would take the external demand for resources component out of the equation. Demand for our resources would now be an internal economic region event. Without that upward external pressure on the local currency, all Australian industries would have a more level playing field upon which to compete within our economic region.
We Australians have to recognize it is “our” economic region. We are not a part of the anglo world anymore. We are every much a component of the thriving Asian machine, that is set to run for many decades, perhaps centuries to come.
This is a very fortunate historical development and we should seize the opportunity as early in the game as possible to fully integrate with our neighbours.
I am Australian, therefore I am Asian!
– Clifford Bennett (August 21, 2012)
So there you have it… A completely contrarian view to what the mainstream media is talking about.
Like Clifford mentioned in the opening paragraph, he's no lightweight when it comes to understanding currency in the Asian marketplace. He'll be addressing the APEC members in September on the very specific subject.
Knowing Clifford for a while now, he also rang the bell in 2009 when in the ASX index was trading at around 3900 mark. He said on public television, that NOW is the time to buy.
He was right on the money again.
It certainly is a breath of fresh air to hear this type of opinion which is based on solid research and experience.
I think I'll be tapping on Clifford's shoulder a bit more often and maybe even create a special offer for you to get access to his work for a significant discount.
Let me think about that for a while…
Hope you enjoyed the article. The bottom line is, good times ahead.
Stay invested.
Signed with Success,
Jon Giaan
Knowledge Source