I agree that having counterfeit bills be accepted on par with "genuine" ones is counterintuitive. I disagree that it's not rational. As I implied with the quotemarks, once there is no central bank or central government, a "genuine" bill is merely one that was printed earlier than "counterfeit" ones. As discussed in comments, in such a scenario, bills (whether "genuine" or not) become commodity currency like gold coins.
I seriously doubt that Somalis kept using shillings out of confidence that they would be worth something again; such hopes would have disappeared years ago. The author alludes to the real reason but doesn't explore it: The currency is still convenient for use where actual dollars, or electronic versions, are not available. Shades of Fallout's bottle caps.
I'm not surprised that the IMF would encourage the return to a sovereign currency. IMF has historically been non-encouraging of dollarization, despite its consistent track record of a) working when instituted by the government (Panama, Ecuador, El Salvador), and b) being preferred by the people when they lack confidence in the official currency (Argentina, Myanmar, Somalia itself, and pretty much the entire rest of the non-developed world).
I seriously doubt that Somalis kept using shillings out of confidence that they would be worth something again; such hopes would have disappeared years ago. The author alludes to the real reason but doesn't explore it: The currency is still convenient for use where actual dollars, or electronic versions, are not available. Shades of Fallout's bottle caps.
I'm not surprised that the IMF would encourage the return to a sovereign currency. IMF has historically been non-encouraging of dollarization, despite its consistent track record of a) working when instituted by the government (Panama, Ecuador, El Salvador), and b) being preferred by the people when they lack confidence in the official currency (Argentina, Myanmar, Somalia itself, and pretty much the entire rest of the non-developed world).