Harlan Piper wrote to Tom:

I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the Euro recently surpassing the $ in total circulation value, and the UAE's announcement that it will join Chile in starting to switch over to Euro reserves? Are these central banks "voting" for new global leadership?

Tom says:

Natural and good thing. Euro becomes the second great global currency. Some merging of Asian currencies will become the third someday.

It's a good development for economies that want to hedge their bets some, but it doesn't equate so easily to global leadership. Europe, for example, won't be using its currency's reserve capacity globally to finance a military superpower, but rather probably to fund its old-age pension.

Remember, it's bucks AND bodies.