Doughnuts tip scale over reeling dollar.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Craig R. Smith, Swiss America Trading Corp. - Interview

The U.S. dollar has been slipping again. So, just how low can the dollar go? During a recent interview, Swiss America CEO Craig R. Smith put it bluntly, "The U.S. dollar has now lost over 40% of its buying power since 2001--and that is under a 'strong dollar' policy from the White House," he says. "Can you imagine what the next four years hold in store for the debt-burdened dollar?

"Sure, a lower dollar has some benefits, such as lowering the trade deficit and increasing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness abroad," allows Smith, "but the price is very heavy upon 'We the People,' who become the ultimate victims of declining dollar-denominated assets.

"Investors," he adds, "are voting with their feet, moving in droves out of U.S. dollars and into foreign currencies and gold, and the $64,000 question is: What will happen if the enormous world oil market shifts from the dollar to the euro? Middle East oil barons no longer accepting U.S. dollars for oil? Unthinkable? Think again!"

Meanwhile, the next leg of the new bull market in gold, silver, and other commodities appears to be well on its way and should take gold prices to the $1,000 level. "The Fed and Bush Administration know that the euro's ultimate aim is, by necessity, to slowly attract foreign investors and central banks to the euro and away from the dollar," explains Alex Wallenwein, editor and publisher of The Euro vs Dollar Currency War. "But they also know that an explosively upward rocketing euro will wreck the Europeans'...