I think that the dollar is tanking largely because of the energy shortage, the claim that the crashing dollar is the reason for the rise in oil prices is blaming the disease on the symptom and not visa versa.

There was an op-ed in yesterday's (or day before) WSJ frankly advocating inflation, that the Fed print more money, as the least among evils.

The rising cost of energy is devaluing everything in the US (except, in a certain sense, the military). All asset classes are affected. In reverse gear, high leverage based on these assets is destroying paper wealth on a gargantuan scale. Those being destroyed demand bailout by the printing press, to hell with the consequences.

You are absolutely right. The price of oil is behind it all. And since oil is peaking (or has peaked) it is fatuous to speak of a bottom. This time, there is no bottom. It's a hard sell, because there has always been a bottom before. What's new is that we are on the down slope off the oil age. Brave new world.