Newsweek's financial columnist Daniel Gross in the January 7, 2008 edition of that news magazine told about going to Starbucks in London with $8.00 remaining on his Starbucks credit card.  After he was served a cup of coffee and bought a newspaper, the waiter frowned as he told him he owed 40 pence more.

The shrinking dollar could not buy coffee and a newspaper with the $8.00 remaining on his Starbucks credit car; he owed 40 pence more.

In summer 2007 the dollar hit a 27-year low against the British pound and a 31-year low against the Canadian dollar.  That represents a 38% drop from the 2002 peak.

The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar has definitely threatened the dollar's former status as the world's reserve currency, where it has been since World War Two.  Gross explained in his brief London trip about that dollar's low ranking against a stable British pound currency how the destruction of the U.S. dollar's value could eventually hurt U.S. consumers even more.