[BubbaTheRocketScientist]

With the euro now competing with the U.S. dollar as the preferred currency for international trade, the last thing the U.S. wants to do is provide them with any kind of incentive to start pricing their commodities (primarily oil, in the case of the Middle East) in something other than dollars.

I don't think that is a serious concern. The European economies are practically on life support compared to ours and the arabs are intelligent enough to know that the Euro is simply not a strong long-term bet.

[Alberta's Child]

Yes, but at the rate we're running up trade and budget deficits, the U.S. dollar is not exactly a strong long-term bet, either. There is probably a lot of concern among these foreign investors that the U.S. will only be able to pay off its future Federal entitlement liabilities by engaging in a deliberate program to inflate the U.S. dollar in a big way.