Smartphone Apps Bury the Case for a Pan-Asian Currency
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A new world wide web of payments may be the best way to move money quickly and cheaply across borders.
Unrealistic as it was technically, the idea of a pan-Asian currency always had some political support: Since 2005, the Japanese have published the exchange value of something called the Asian Monetary Unit, a precursor to what would one day become the region's equivalent of the euro. The debt crisis in southern Europe — and the threat it posed to the single currency in the early part of the last decade — ended that pipe dream. Now there's a more modest goal: Keep money national, but allow it to jump borders effortlessly. This vision could start becoming a reality in three years and have a far-reaching impact on a continent expected to account for half of the world's consump...