On Monday we speculated that McDonald’s Big Mac would come to replace our Dollar as the world’s premier reserve currency.

Then on Tuesday The Wall Street Journal ledes their Money & Investing Section with:

Decades from now, the crisis of 2008 mightn’t be remembered as the last days of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, but as the moment the dollar lost its undisputed No. 1 ranking among world currencies.

Meanwhile the President of France is pressing this very aggressively. I wonder why?

What was true in 1945 can no longer be true today,” Mr. Sarkozy said last week. “The dollar cannot claim to be the only currency in the world.

Is Sarko Jonesing For Control Of Micky D's?

There is as yet no official confirmation that Big Mac is the leading candidate for Dollar V2.0, but if we Follow The Money we will sniff something other than French Fries cooking in the bistro.

According to Drew Hasselback in Canada’s Financial Post:

Rising food prices and declining consumer confidence are leading the French to abandon bistros for McDonald’s. About 3,000 independent restaurants filed for bankruptcy in the first half of 2008, according to Insee, which is France’s national statistics office. The number of filings was a record 27% higher than in the same period of 2007.

France is meanwhile emerging as McDonald’s biggest source of revenue outside of the United States. Sales at the company’s 1,115 outlets in France will rise this year to a record 3.35 billion euros, McDonald’s has said.

Can we next be looking at a French Nationalization of Micky D’s to turn around their economy and seize control of the new Global Reserve Currency?

Perhaps.

And the term being floated for a new Reserve Currency, to replace “The Greenback”?

“The Sarko”

While Sarko’s chin isn’t a total show-stopper, I must say he does use it to great effect, as you can see in this poster.

Remember, YHIHF, OYYD.

Problems with the WSJ link because you just haven’t had the time to purchase a subscription? Here’s our hack-around. And if you thought we misspelled lead as lede here’s your link.

Please hold the Frites.

I’m retired, and have no complaints about my career. At least officially. But I always thought I would have been more successful if I was about 6 inches taller, or had a great chin like say, Cary Grant. I was pretty sure of this.

Last week I received an email from Robin, a Scottish friend, who has been a long time Burns fan; Burns Night and all that.

Since Scott and I made our trip to Orkney and stayed in the “Bothy” on the Pier at Stromness…I have got into some of the art and culture of Orkney. One aspect that might interest you is George Mackay Brown (the bard of Orkney). It’s a lot easier going than some of Burns and really captures the essence of the place.

So I went to George Mackay Brown’s website, and was gob-smacked. Take a look at George’s chin. Simply amazing, my new hero. And I’m not even into his poetry yet.

George Mackay Brown 1921 - 1996

Here are your links: GMB Website, Wikipedia. George Mackay Brown is considered to be one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century, to say nothing of a face sporting the Gold Standard of Big Chins.