Could the U.S. dollar ever be ruined?  Other currencies, like the German mark in the 1920s, have been ruined, so why not the dollar? Recently, I wrote a book review of The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047, a novel by Lionel Shriver that deals with the demise of the dollar due to a default on the national debt.  The novel's default is a response to outside pressure – namely, the creation by foreign powers of the "bancor," a new currency meant to supplant the dollar as the world's reserve currency.  Adding insult to injury, the creators of this new currency demand that U.S. debt be repaid in bancors and that "American bonds sold to foreign investors must henceforth be denominated in bancors." Upon the debut of the bancor, the dollar plummets in value.  But America doesn't accede to the foreign demands and makes it a felony for Americans to hold bancors, even...(Read Full Article)