still kinda jammed up time-wise, but in order to block a wholesale slide to despair as to alternative ways of thinking about currency markets==assuming that the formal analogy between "fiat currency" and crises of speculation at more local levels holds as more than a formal analogy (i'm not convinced of this at all) there is the tobin tax initiative.
here is a global policy forum collection of links/information on the initiative:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/...rtax/index.htm
there's alot of material here to wade through, but a bit of time poking around will open up an entirely alternate way of thinking about international currency markets, their volatity, the relations between this volatility and political stability, and at least poses an alternative.
i used to do some work for attac a few years ago, and they were at one time a useful resource not only about this, but also for papers that debated, refined and extended this (and other) ideas...but the organization imploded a year or so ago and their archives have apparently disappeared from the web for now...the point is that this is not a new idea, it has been around and has been used for some time in the context of efforts to undermine neo-liberal hegemony.
funny that folk in the states dont seem to know about it.
kinda makes you wonder about the reactionary ideological bubble we move around in here, dont it?
i'll wait to see if anything happens from here before i post any of my views on this.