Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale on Tuesday morning proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with something available around most of the globe, pork bellies.
In an essay posted on the Knox County Government web site, Ragsdale said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currenciesâ€.
Analysts are split as to whether this option could work, due to the difficulties obviously involved in trading pork bellies on a daily basis. “Just storing them presents a problem,” said one detractor. “It’s hard to get many pork bellies in your wallet, even a purse will hold a limited supply…and they’re only going to stay fresh for a set amount of time.”
Although unlikely to gain traction, Ragsdale’s new plan has quickly gained the support of pig farmers and butchers.