If high gas prices are bothering you then you haven't seen anything yet

[TwixVoy]

IF (and I realize that is an IF) China and Russia are successful in breaking the US dollar we are looking at sky high prices for damn near everything.

The fact is we don't produce anything anymore and almost everything we consume is imported. Major corporations trade US dollars to some other currency in order to buy those goods.

Guess what? If the US dollar were to lose 5 times its current value then all of a sudden everything we import now costs 5 times more due to the fact more US dollars have to be traded for the same foreign currency value.

Just one very unpleasant effect to think about should the dollar lose its value.

[Rex]

1. Once upon a time, America made a lot of shit.

An amazing amount of stuff. To bad those days are gone.

[regnaD kciN]

2. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

(Take 7,487,932,049,328,057,457,082)

:eyes:

[MercutioATC]

7. Why is it that some people have no middle ground, only extremes?

You're correct in that there's no need to panic...but the OP doesn't advocate panic.

If you really believe that the dollar is a stable currency and not subject to serious devaluation in a scenario like this (or one of 3 or 4 other plausible scenarios) then you're not getting your information from the same sources I am.

Both panic and Pollyannic ignorance are dangerous.

As in everything, be calm, be informed, be prepared.

[leftstreet]

3. Why would China and Russia want to break the US dollar?

:shrug:

[Old and In the Way]

6. It's sorta like a MAD scenario for economic security.

If China/Russia/Japan started dumping Treasuries/dollars, they'll realize the same scale of losses we'd incur. No one wins. The trick is to restructure their economies over time, without devaluing the dollar in the short term. For the US, we should recognize how interdependent we are in the world financial pecking order and start to invest in a post industrial economy that is focused on renewable energy and evolutionary changes in our transportation infrastructure - job creation that is labor intensive.

[taught_me_patience]

4. Probably not going to happen anytime soon

China and Russia depend on a strong dollar for their exports. Why would they "break the US dollar?"

[and-justice-for-all]

5. Well, its about damn time we make the things we need...

rather then buying it all from some other place.