It looks like it will have to break before effective measures will be taken to fix it. Whether the energy system, political system, or financial system breaks down first is a good question. I'd vote for the energy system because the other two are less dependent upon immutable physical facts.

Meanwhile we have the spectacle of the President not being able to say we can't leave Iraq because of the oil - because he said it wasn't about oil. Probably the prospect of the US actually leaving Iraq is as much what is pushing down the dollar as anything else.

The reserve currency of the world is oil, and if the US isn't sitting on the spigot, the global economy will morph into a multi currency, oh no, free enterprise system. The political effect of withdrawal on Iraq will be negligible for Iraq but what has been termed an inflexion point for the world system. Whether or not the President really understands this is a point for the historians.

Expecting presidential hopefuls to say anything meaningful at this stage is almost naive; that said, I have heard more substance than usual - far more - and I can see Al coming in swinging and going for it with his secret weapon, honesty and guts. The others, Gravel aside, seem lacking; or, as I like to put it, have mutable convictions.