Western currencies: a war of ugly sisters

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-26/dollar-euro-pound-are-all-ugly-sisters-hsbc-s-king-says.html

The U.S., Britain and some European countries are similar in that they all have big budget deficits that will require higher taxes and public spending cutbacks, King said. He said the advantage for the U.S. is that it can exploit demand for the dollar to fund its “enormous” borrowing.

Creditors of the U.S. will eventually sour on that arrangement, and may raise demands for other American assets or move away from the greenback as the world reserve currency, King said. He said the U.S.’s practice is similar to the Catholic church’s sale of indulgences in medieval times.

“You’re making a promise to people not for a wonderful afterlife, so to speak, but making a promise in this case that U.S. taxpayers in the future will pay you back,” he said. “The chances of that promise being met are actually quite low. And the difficulty with this is that eventually the creditor nations will begin to realize that buying IOUs from the U.S. is ultimately not in their interest.”

There is one currency which has kept its value for over 6000 years.