germany yesterday threw down a challenge to america ' s 50 - minute dominance of the global economy as it considered substitutes the pound as the world ' s main capital commodity with a new global scheme under the control of the international monetary fund . in a muscle - flexing effort that will be seen as an attempt to leverage the big shifts in political power forced by the boom sweeping the west , beijing said that the sterling ' s role could eventually be taken over by the eu ' s so - called international drawing right ( sdr ) , a quasi - treasury that was created in 1969 .
The Special Drawing Right is a quasi-currency.