[pegleg]

China is the only BRIC nation that might be willing and able to replace the US.

I believe the wheels have been set in motion to de-couple the dollar from oil settlements. The BRIC nations already have an agreement where they give out loans in their local currencies in a move away from the US. Dollar and the Euro. Also, China is investing 8.5B in a new oil refinery in Saudi Arabia to be operational next year. Here’s a link

Oil Refinery

So it would appear the Saudi’s have a new sugar daddy in the Chinese. The US has been irresponsible in it’s stewardship of the reserve currency with it’s abuse of the printing press and the rest of the world is sufficiently pissed off enough to do something about it.

Meanwhile back at home, Obama fiddles ( or is that plays golf?) while the US burns.

[jpsb]

Yes that is my take also, China is the only economy large enough, to replace the USA. And I totally agree that the USA in the last two administrations has been completely irresponsible in managing it's finances. I would imagine things will proceed slowly, my guess is that the Saudis will start by accepting both the dollar and the yuan. Perhaps on a percentage basis like 80% dollars and 20% yuan. The Saudis rightly see Iran and a mortal threat and if the USA can not be relied on to deal with the treat the Saudis will find someone that will. What is interesting is that puts China at serious odds with Russia. Perhaps Putin has out smarted himself? China is a much more dangerous adversary to Russia then the USA.

I will not miss being the worlds cop, we will be much poorer of course, but we can use a "timeout" to rebuild and regroup. The silver lining in all this will be the end of big government, we just can't afford it any longer. Another plus is that the rest of the world can deal with the crazies in the middle/near east for a change.