And while you're at it, pity us American expatriates, yearning for the days when the Economist's Big Mac Index was good for a wry chuckle about those crazy Europeans paying (insert astronomical sum) for a cheeseburger.
Now we have to worry about the nabobs of OPEC, their pockets overflowing with $100 (or almost) a barrel petrodollars, vying for Big Macs or Big Mercs when their dollars are worth less and less. Are they going to switch?
From the Financial Times' editorial yesterday:
The dominant male in a pride of lions has an easy life – as long as he shows no weakness. The US economy has long been in a similar position, yet the increasing vulnerability of the dollar is creating a risk that others will lose confidence and turn on the dominant currency. Comments from Opec, the oil cartel, and Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, suggest that other lions are restless.
Is it me, or is the deafening silence from the White House an ostrich-like head-in-the-sand unwillingness to acknowledge that there is a huge problem looming? Is the dominant male curling into a fetal position? Why is it that US Treasury Department announcements about truly wanting a "strong dollar" are greeted with the same international skepticism as other "do as I say, not as I do" pronouncements?
I'm not an economist, but my gut tells me that this may be a turning point in international financial arrangements. It may not even happen in a Bretton Woods-like venue, when after World War II the US dollar came to replace the pound sterling as the international reserve currency. In fact, it may just happen in a sort of stealth switch, as individual nations, cartels, companies and government investment funds start dealing in currencies other than the dollar as their default currency. Sort of like voting with your feet, this may be the world's final judgment on the disastrous credit-card presidency of George W. Bush.