No Where Near Bottom

Get ready to pine for the days of four dollar gas and thousand dollar gold:

The U.S. dollar’s day of reckoning may be inching closer as its status as a safe-haven currency fades with every uptick in stocks and commodities and its potential risks – debt and inflation – are brought under a harsher spotlight.

Ashraf Laidi, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said Wednesday a “serious case of dollar damage” was underway.

“We long warned about the day of reckoning for the dollar emerging at the next economic recovery,” Mr. Laidi said in a note.

I’ve been betting against the dollar for years (and oftentimes losing), figuring you can only export so much of something before the market gets flooded. Our import-based consumer economy could sustain itself only so long before the Chinese got tired of stuffing greenbacks under the Middle Kingdom State Mattress Foundry #217.

Little did I figure that the whole thing would get a last gasp — via huge run-ups in public debt, the Treasury running its presses 24/7, and even the Fed conjuring up a trillion here and a trillion there. Pretty soon, to twist a phrase, you’re talking Monopoly money.

The difference, of course, is that Parker Bros. makes a profit selling their worthless denominations.