Our Good Friends the Saudis

Lest we forget, Bin Laden is not Iraqui. He is Saudi and related to the ruling family. He is known to be in Afghanistan - not Iraq.

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East

Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas

"Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States,"

The Saudi central bank said today that it would take "appropriate measures" to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg

global investors will start to shun the US bond markets

The danger is that this could now accelerate

leaving America starved of

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright By

Ben Bernanke