We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. When 43 Asian and European nations met behind closed doors last month, the Chinese national newspaper reported that the consensus was that the problems in the U.S. were disproportionally dragging down the rest of the world and that a new world reserve currency was needed. It is speculated that they may choose to replace the dollar with a basket of currencies.
The dollar is also the currency that crude oil is traded in. We invaded Iraq a few months after they dared to start accepting other currencies. Iran has now begun accepting other currencies and has established their own oil bourse. These are the real underlying reasons behind today's wars.
Having the dollar unpegged from either crude oil or removed as the world's reserve currency would result in chaos that will dwarf the problems that we have seen in the last few months. We will no longer have the blank check to just print the money we need. We will no longer have anyone willing to take on more of our debt.
Either of these developments would mean that we would be unable to pay for oil and we would likely take it from Venezuela, in the name of National Security, since they are on 'our turf'. Russia and China know this and are showing strong support for Venezuela right now, in anticipation. There will probably not be war. Venezuela will be sacrificed as a pawn, in exchange for the U.S. remaining silent as the Ukraine and Taiwan are taken over.
Oil is just one of the things that we will no longer be able to afford. We will have to start over. Unemployed Americans will launch a plethora of cottage industries in order to survive and we may finally be forced to 'Buy American', because things will be so dire, we will finally grasp the importance of supporting each other.
The real weapons of mass destruction were what the finance industry has done to our economy. The fate that we face because of all this is too dismal for most analysts to face. They remain in denial.