[theBuckwheat]

The problem isn’t a particular value of the USD in relation to other currencies, it is the rate of change. Over time, exchange rates will fairly represent purchasing power parity, especially in commodities such as oil, if only because of the ease in shipping from where the price is low to where it is high enough to cover shipping costs and then some.

Another reason the Saudi’s should be worried about an ever-higher dollar price for oil: the US has more hydrocarbons in the form of oil shales and coal than all of Arab OPEC put together. The higher the market price, the easier and quicker conversion projects will be proposed, approved and financed.

see US DOD presentation in PDF at:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/energy_expo/2005/pdfs/t_s4c.pdf

Also: Discovery Magazine article, Anything to Oil:
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/apr/anything-oil

[SatinDoll]

This whole weaker dollar situation can be blown away by POTUS issuing an executive order to drill on the continental shelves of the lower 48 states and on the North slope of Alaska. He isn’t running for President again, so he won’t have to worry about such things as popularity (his is pretty much in the toilet anyway).

Now, can he do that?