Yankees and Their Dollar Not Welcome

Picking up where I left off in my author’s note at the end of my book Custom Maid Knowledge, now being reviewed for a January 2008 release where I discuss ─ after the dollar had depreciated 40 percent ─ why the Chinese yuan is in the process of replacing the U.S. dollar as the international currency, I want to share some recent personal enlightening experiences that confirm my concern notwithstanding the vocal political denials voiced in Washington D.C. by career politicians.

I was in Dubai on November 19-21, 2007, and went shopping at the local spice bazaar for dates, figs, apricots, saffron and other spices. When I took my money clip out of my pocket to pay, “Chinese money not dollars” said the salesman when he saw me leafing through the hundred dollar yuan notes to get to the dollars. I had been in Shanghai a couple of days earlier and the Chinese currency was still folded over my Hong Kong and U.S. dollars.

Groups of Chinese tourists were everywhere in the Emirates ─ no different than Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. In the Dubai museum, on the dhows in the Dubai Creek, souks and restaurants. Their currency dominated at the currency exchanges and cash registers. Tourists are the best ambassadors of their national currency.

Just as the yuan is replacing the dollar, ugly loud mouth American tourists have been replaced by their boisterous Chinese counterparts. American tourists are becoming an endangered species because they are too busy being wage slaves to spare any dollars for overseas travel to get to know foreigners, their country, history, or enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the world’s bazaars .

The dollar hit a historic low during my Dubai visit as speculation mounted in international financial circles that the Gulf States are ready to either revalue their currencies or do away with their peg to the dollar and switch to a basket of currencies to quell the mounting exchange rate losses and domestic inflation.

During the weekend, OPEC also debated whether it should price oil against a basket of currencies as an alternative to the dollar pricing of oil. The dollar slump has hit export revenues of oil exporters because of oil’s dollar pricing. The dollar’s fall on global markets has fueled the price of oil to a record $98 plus a barrel.

While in Dubai, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez was across the Gulf in Iran claiming the “empire of the dollar is crashing.” His host, president Ahmadinejad called the U.S. dollar a “worthless piece of paper.” It is not surprising that the two presidents who share the view of America’s overbearing global influence, capitalized on the dollars’ weakness to denounce America and its currency.

What is surprising is that Steve Forbes, the publisher of Forbes magazine, who was also in Dubai during my visit speaking at the Leaders in Dubai Business Forum, blamed the U.S. Federal Reserve for the ongoing dollar crisis and called on the Gulf states to correct America’s mistakes and protect themselves from any further depreciation of the dollar.

Forbes urged Gulf countries to continue to peg their currencies to the dollar and to revalue rather than devalue their currencies. He urged the attendees not to allow their currencies to float or going for a basket of currencies. Instead, Gulf countries should do a one-time revaluation, whether 8, 10,12 or 15 percent and keep it fixed and re-peg to the dollar.

Why can’t We the Apathetic People protect ourselves and America? Why do we need to rely on any foreign country to fix and clean up our career politicians repeated mistakes?