Several articles have appeared in the mainstream press over the past several months discussing some alternative to the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Special Drawing Rights (SDR) sponsored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been mentioned. Some time ago, an article on Reuters indicated a United Nations panel has decided much of the world would like to move away from the American currency as the world's reserve currency. This panel wanted to look into a "basket of currencies" or perhaps another entirely different, new currency to replace the U.S. dollar. Additionally, both the Russians and Chinese have indicated similar concerns.
Action has been taken to move in this direction, for example Russia and China have agreed to do some trading using each others respective currencies bypassing the need to move into U.S. dollars. There have been rumors over the years that some of the North African nations, and Middle Eastern nations were wishing to settle the oil trade in Euro's rather than dollars.
