I'd like to draw everyone's attention to a recent article in Taipan Daily, our free daily newsletter. One of the recent themes we've been talking about is if the U.S. dollar will have the strength to remain the world's reserve currency. Our editorial director, Justice Litle, wrote specifically about this in an article called, "President Obama Can't Save the Dollar." Our belief is that the U.S. dollar has been appreciating only because investors are fleeing to "safety" which creates a sudden demand for the dollar. There is no fundamental economical aspect to the greenback to suggest this appreciation will be sustatinable. Just the opposite, in fact. With a mad-cap printing Federal Reserve chaired by spineless leader Ben Bernanke, the dollar is a phoenix... inches away from being crisped to ashes. It doesn't help that we've got a more than $680 billion debt burden to China alone, who today got a strongly-worded statement by new U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. But what happens if China doesn't want to hold U.S. dollars any more, or calls up that $680 billion debt? I remember a couple years back when there was talk of China changing its dollars for gold. People brushed it off, and it hasn't happened yet. Yet... That's a scary word. If you knew that the asset you were holding was going to be worthless in a year or two, would you keep holding it? Only if somebody made it worth your while. I think this whole China situation bares watching, and closely. If we get a spike in oil prices that start to put inflationary pressure back into play, I wouldn't be surprised to hear renewed talk of moving away from the dollar. And it wouldn't be just China calling for a change... Watch the Middle East, too.