Taxing financial trades has been touted as a panacea for all kinds of global ills, a cash source to fight poverty and global warming. But the latest European attempt to introduce a worldwide standard 40 years after it was first conceived is facing stiff opposition from the U.S. and Britain.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that if Greece has trouble financing its debt, Germany will be willing to help but that any new aid will have to be tied to "clear conditions".

The problem is that the Greek government has a problem with accepting agreed upon financial conditions then spending too much money and asking for more.

Much of Greece was shut down yesterday as...

The European Union and its euro zone members said on Sunday that any future bailout would occur only in the “context of joint EU/IMF support,” and require a program of “strong conditionality” according to an agreement by EU finance ministers.

Currency, like all forms of abstract value, is based on trust. And trust itself is based - except among the most naïve - on experience, and the repetitive demonstration of fidelity, whether positive or negative. At present, the US dollar, which had experienced a gradual rise during the 20th Century to the position gained well into the Cold War of being the trading world’s reserve currency.