Quite an insightful post, those graphs are real eye openers. It seems the nations of the world are all in a headlong race to the bottom. This reminds me of a comic I read once regarding the stock market. I can't remember the exact source, but it had a tag line that went something like "the extent of our profits is determined by the strength of our delusions". The only reason currencies work is because people believe that they will. When people stop having faith in their national currency, then that's the beginning of the end.