Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
Being the world's reserve currency gives the U.S. the biggest credit card account in the world.

Of course we've been running it up mercilessly in the past 8 years, and the creditors are getting a wee bit nervous, hence the steady and accelerating decline in the value of the USD over the same time period.
It is not written in stone anywhere that the US Dollar must be the world reserve currency. It replaced the British Pound. It will be replaced, itself, if current trends are not reversed. THEN, things will get interesting. Some states have already broken the dollar peg.

Presidential candidates are trampling around the cornfields of Iowa, and through the snows of New Hampshire. You might think they would be talking about the credit crunch and subrime loan fiasco, and what has happened to the dollar. But no.

It really boggles my mind why the foreigners continue to lend to the U.S. government on the terms that they do. I know I wouldn't. I'd be on a buyer's strike.

Things are going to get interesting. We already have a president (and a Republican one at that) wanting to rewrite mortgage contracts. I eagerly await the next chapters in this drama as it unfolds.