The precipitous decline of the dollar and effects on US culture

The precipitous fall of the US Dollar in the world currency market is no secret, and with the current administration and its policies, I see no end in sight. The Financial Times brings us a chart from Sempra Metals that details just how bad the situation has become (click to enlarge):

• The US dollar has now lost more than a third of its value (-35%) against a basket of major currencies since Feb 2002.
• The decline is accelerating. The USD has shed -12.5% of its value in the last year, -3.5% in the last month, and -1.5% in the last week alone.

This is scary data. Made even scarier by the fact that the US Dollar would be even lower if foreign countries like China were not buying our debt. This exacerbates the problem by making us beholden to countries, like China, with bad human rights records and incompatible moral outlooks.

Combine this with the real estate market crash in the US, the ongoing and expensive conflict in Iraq (to say nothing of the Bush Administration's inflamatory actions towards Iran as of late, and possibly hinting at their want for armed conflict with Iran), and the terribly botched foreign policy decisions of this administration (most recently the monetary support and other aid given to Musharraf, military dictator of Pakistan, who recently declared martial law and has squashed any hope of democracy for now in Pakistan), and its hard to see any way for the US to avoid an economic depression.

Even US culture is reflecting an awareness that US economic might is no longer top dog.

The first signs? Exhibit A: the new Jay-Z (a popular rap artist in the US) music video "Blue Magic" features the rapper no longer brandishing large denomination, (mostly) green US Dollar bills as a symbol of wealth - he's now brandishing large denomination Euro bills. Even American rappers get it.

When will this administration get it? When will they change their economic and foreign policies to steer this Titanic away from her iceberg?

I hope soon, and if not, I hope the next administration has enough time to repair the damage.