How Far the Mighty Have Fallen
Few people seem to recall that the U.S. was the Saudi Arabia of the world at one time producing more oil than any other country. At the beginning of the last century the U.S. was the greatest oil exporter in the world. 7 out of 8 barrels of oil used in the first and second world wars were U.S. oil barrels. The sale and use of oil is in large part how the U.S. became so rich and powerful. For decades the U.S. was the largest creditor nation in the world. U.S. money, "sound as the dollar", flooded into countries all over the world as investment capital and at home it allowed the U.S. to fund the greatest investment in pure research, technological advancement and military power that the world has ever seen.
How things have changed. Today the U.S. is both the largest importer of oil in the world as well as by far the largest debtor nation in the world. These two facts being not at all coincidental. It is very difficult for anyone to fully grasp the enormity of what "by far" means in the case of U.S. debt but let me try to give you an idea. The U.S. national debt is 7 trillion dollars, 13 trillion if you add State, municipal and consumer debt and 18 trillion if the Bush economic 'plan' is fully enacted. The entirety of the third world's debt is just about two trillion dollars. In other words the U.S. debt is many times the size of a debt that has been large enough to choke the economic life out of two-thirds of the world's people. Many of whom are being forced to try and get by on $1 a day ... [continued]
- Yes, indeed, how far the mighty have fallen. The common share of the United States of America, the US Dollar, has been dropping like a stone against the other major currencies in recent years. Refer to the 3-year chart above. USDX, the weighted US Dollar Index, was at 120 in 2002, and now it's at an ignominious 84. That's a 30% drop. What this means is, if you are holding US Dollars, or USD-denominated assets, every dollar you had back in 2002 is now worth just 70 cents.
And now for the usual "technical analysis" mumbo jumbo : the downside targets for the USDX are now 83.76, 79.86, and 73.55. Since the 84 level has been broken, the downtrend is likely to continue to the next lower target levels. A correction in the long-term secular trend has to break convincingly above 87 in order to stage a bear-market rally. In likelihood, however, USDX 84 which used to be support, may serve as a resistance level in the foreseeable future.
See also:
1. U.S. dollar hits all time low against euro
Now just to upgrade my video card beyond a Geforce 4 440 MX. 
Go figure, onboard gigabit LAN, and I connect at 28.8. 
I need fiber optics. Aluminum telephone lines are not the best for bandwith.