Got Lopedos?

Forget Canada-U.S. currency exchange rates. We have this other perpetually irksome currency problem that requires attention - whether our dollar is below par, at par or above par. Regardless of the relative worth of the dollar, we lose plus-or-minus 4 cents off the top every time we convert one of them into U.S. funds. [...] Monetary unions have proven that every little country doesn't need its own currency - and, indeed, that many of these countries perform better when they join a neighbourhood currency. Canada, of course, isn't every little country.

We're a full member of the G8, the club that produces two-thirds of global GDP. We're definitely not El Salvador. But, really, so what? Three big-league countries of the G8 (Germany, France and Italy) are themselves euro countries. And Canada's extensive economic integration with the U.S. makes the need for some kind of bi-national currency obvious - and some form of interchangeable currency almost inevitable.

But dollarization, the option of last resort, would be intolerably embarrassing. Monetary union would be politically difficult - for the U.S. as much as for Canada. The hypothetical "amero," so detested by conspiracy theorists on both sides of the border, tilts linguistically to Mexico, which doesn't help; one reader of this column suggests "lopedos" (for loonie, peso and dollar) - but this formulation sounds too much like "Laredo," which celebrates either the oldest border crossing between the U.S. and Mexico or a popular brand of Jeep.

Source: ReportOnBusiness.com