Highlights Of The US Dollar 2008-2010

Everyone knows that individuals and small businesses are still experiencing the effects of the Great Recession that has been the worst since the Great Depression. But what effects is the dollar experiencing?

Below are highlights of our currency's woes during the recession (excerpt from Currency Wars by James Rickards):

• October 28, 2008 - Interfax reports that Vladimir Putin, prime minister of Russia, advised Wen Jiabao, premier of China, to abandon the US dollar as a transaction and reserve currency
• November 15, 2008 - The Associated press reports that Iran has converted its financial reserves into gold
• November 19, 2008 - Dow Jones reports that China is considering a target of four thousand metric tons for its official gold reserves to diversify against the risks of holding US dollars
• February 9, 2009 - The Financial Times reports that transactions in gold bullion have reached an all-time record
• March 18, 2009 - Reuters reports that the United Nations supports calls for the abandonment of the US dollar as the global reserve currency
• March 30, 2009 - Agence France Presse reports that Russia and China are cooperating on the creation of a new global currency
• March 31, 2009 - The Financial Times reports that China and Argentina have entered into a currency swap, which would allow Argentina to use Chinese yuan in lieu of dollars
• April 26, 2009 - Agence France Presse reports that China is calling for the reform of the world monetary system and replacement of the US dollar as the leading reserve currency
• May 18, 2009 - The Financial Times reports Brazil and China have agreed to explore conducting bilateral trade without using dollars
• June 16, 2009 - Reuters reports that Brazil, Russia, India, and China, at a BRIC summit, call for a more "diversified, stable and predictable currency system"
• November 3, 2009 - Bloomberg reports that India has purchased $6.7 billion worth of IMF gold to diversify assets away from the weaker dollar
• November 7, 2010 - World Bank president Robert Zoellick states that the G20 should "consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values"
• December 13, 2010 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls for the consideration of a wider role for SDRs in the international monetary system
• December 15, 2010 - BusinessWeek reports that China and Russia have jointly called for the dollar's role in world trade to be diminished and are launching a yuan-ruble trade currency settlement mechanism

All of this and more happened and is happening during this recession.  Yet not much attention or consideration are these issues given or being addressed during the Presidential debates...questions about what will be done, or is being done to bolster our currency isn't mentioned.  If other countries are diversifying and finding alternative investments to the dollar...should you be doing the same?  Just food for thought.

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