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Saturday, October 25, 2008

The US Dollar, Countries Using/Tied to it and the Amero


Federal Reserve Bank
The United States Mint is in charge of producing the nation's coins, while the Bureau of Engraving has printed banknotes and Printing for the Federal Reserve since 1914. The Federal Reserve Bank being a private sector, not by the government, but by a few rich men.

Usage
A few nations besides the United States use the U.S. dollar as their official currency. Ecuador, El Salvador and East Timor all adopted the currency independently; former members of the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (namely Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands) decided that, despite their independence, they wanted to keep the U.S. dollar as their official currency. Additionally, local currencies of several states such as Bermuda, the Bahamas, Panama and a few other states can be freely exchanged at a 1:1 ratio for the U.S. dollar.

Finally, a number of nations have tied their currencies to the U.S. dollar - including Argentina (1:1 fixed exchange rate from 1991 until 2002), Lebanon (one dollar = 1500 Lebanese pound), Hong Kong (one U.S. dollar = HK$ 7.8 since 1983), and several more. A significant recent development is the action of the People's Republic of China: the renminbi had once been informally and controversially pegged to the dollar (since the mid-1990s, at 1 U.S. dollar = 8.28 Y); however the peg was removed on July 21, 2005. Instead, China has a managed float against a basket of currencies.

The Amero - North American Currency

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