In deep financial crisis, traditionally social democratic Denmark elected a conservative prime minister, Poul Schlüter, a jovial man with a bow tie. One of his first decisions was to peg the Danish krone to the Deutschmark to stop the inflation devaluation cycle.

But, as a big country, China would not have the vulnerabilities of smaller strong currencies (the Norwegian krone or the Swiss franc, for example). And, as a provider of a reserve currency, China would not need to continue its own quest for reserves, which has been a major contributing factor to global financial instability.

Today, the major beneficiaries in fact, victims of dollar doubts are economies that are much smaller than Japan or Germany. Nowadays, capital flows are driving up the Swiss franc, the Swedish and Norwegian krone, and the Canadian and Australian dollars, causing profound dislocations in these small economies as their products and services become uncompetitive.

The new rates are effective from the school year in progress on 1 January 2005. The currency areas where increases were approved are as follows Austria (euro), Belgium (euro), Denmark (krone), France (euro), Germany (euro), Ireland (euro), Italy (euro), Japan (yen), Netherlands (euro), Spain (euro), Sweden (krona), Switzerland (Swiss franc), United Kingdom (pound sterling), United States dollar in the United States and the United States dollar outside the United States.