Will The Dollar Remain Reserve Currency?

Treasury Secretary and tax cheat, Timothy "Turbo Tax" Geithner said today that the U.S. dollar is still the world's reserve currency, though he also expressed openness to exand the use of an IMF currency basket.

Turbo Tax, when asked during an audience question and answer period following a speech in New York, whether he foresaw a change in the dollar's global role said, "No, I do not.  The dollar remains the world's dominant reserve currency and I think that's likely to continue for a long period of time."

The fact that the question was even brought up is cause for concern, as well as his less-than-certain response.  Other world economic and banking leaders have been recently suggesting a change.

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How Much is $3.6 Trillion?

Obama has already said that he wants to spend $3.6 trillion next year.  (Don't we all?  Imagine the shoes that would buy.  But I digress...) 

Does anyone really understand how much money that is?

If you had $3.6 trillion and you spent $1 million an hour, non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you wouldn't run out of money for 411 years.

If you took 3.6 trillion one dollar bills and placed them end to end, that line of bills would reach from Capitol Hill to the sun and then back to Capitol Hill and then back to the sun - and then almost all the way back to Capitol Hill again. 

Here is another way to look at it:  $3.6 Trillion is one out of every four dollars produced in the U.S.  It's 25% of the Gross Domestic Product. 

... and that doesn't include the $700 billion in bank bailout money or the $410 billion pork-spending bill currently under consideration on the Hill.  That's another $1.1 trillion, which is a ton of money.  Actually, it's about 1 million tons of money.

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