Don't forget the overall diminuation of U.S. "street cred" due to blundering
military adventures, crazy foreign policy, and an obvious mental defective
in the top job. That translates directly into loss of confidence. The
value of the dollar is largely based on that confidence. The dollar was
the standard by which most other currencies were valued just eight years
ago. Now the "gold standard" is the oil standard. As the world has
shifted from dollars to oil as the basic economic unit, one has gotten
cheaper and one has gotten more expensive. Guess how that looks from our
end of the telescope.

--
Roger Long