The Euro zone is as of 2008 the largest importer of goods and services in the world, and has as such replaced US in that position, Americans buying power of foreign goods will fall dramatically in the future as the currency looses value, China is the most dependant country of the US consumers but as the Chinese have said if they have to they can do without and rely much more on the domestic market.

The consumer of last resort thing is not a pillow I would go to sleep on if I was the US, things are rapidly slipping much more so than I think many over there realises.

The US have got to stop thinking that the dependency they have created on the dollar around in the world will ultimately save them, if some economic analysts are right and a second US mortgage bubble is about to burst just as big as the first one, the demise of the dollar as the trade currency could happen much more rapidly than expected.

Many of the country's that up till now have used huge sums to support the dollar are themselves in dire straits, and at what point exactly does it become more costly, and to risky, for them to keep supporting the dollar than bailing out and take the losses that will give.??