There has been much speculation about the status of the US Dollar during the course of this world economic crisis. How bad really is it for the greenback? If The Demise of the Dollar in today’s Independent is to be believed; very…

Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council.

And what does it mean for us?

The Chinese believe … that the Americans persuaded Britain to stay out of the euro in order to prevent an earlier move away from the dollar. But Chinese banking sources say their discussions have gone too far to be blocked now. “The Russians will eventually bring in the rouble to the basket of currencies,” a prominent Hong Kong broker told The Independent. “The Brits are stuck in the middle and will come into the euro. They have no choice because they won’t be able to use the US dollar.”

So should we be worried:

“These plans will change the face of international financial transactions,” one Chinese banker said. “America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate.”

Ok so the article is pre-empting denials to reduce their credibility. And right on cue Bloomberg reports that Muhammad al-Jasser, the Saudi Bank Governor has stated that The Independent report is “absolutely incorrect” and there has been “absolutely nothing” of that nature discussed between Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Reading between the lines there is probably some truth in the idea that countries have been rethinking thier reliance on the Dollar (it would be more amazing if they had not) but whether the full-blown conspiracy theory is to be believed, hmmm.