Specifically, this regards the US dollar, and the leader of the Japanese opposition party, which is currently leading in the polls, is saying that, “the nation should consider shifting its $1 trillion of foreign reserves away from the dollar and buying International Monetary Fund bonds,” and we have increasing evidence that China is taking baby steps away from the US dollar too, increasingly moving toward bilateral trade deals in which the currencies in question are increasingly directly exchanged, as opposed to dollar denominated.

I think that there has always been a synergy between the US financial industry and the US dollars status as the world’s preeminent reserve currency, and what has shaken it lately is not the US deficits, but the spectacle of a dysfunctional and corrupt finance industry which has our government so in its thrall that it tarnishes both the industry and the currency.