It's Monday morning and it's the same old, same old: gold surges to a new high; commodities rally; stocks rally; and the dollar is weaker. Traders see this as a no brainer.

Spot gold is strong today, reaching a new high of $1165.45 per ounce, up from Friday's close of $1148.20. On the COMEX, gold traded at $1,165.90, up $19.10 per ounce (each $1.00 equals $100.00). Gold has been spurred higher by central bank and fund buying.

Options traders are betting on gold rising to $1,200 per ounce. That's only $35 away. We could see that in another day of two if current trend continues.

As America's debt continues to grow, is it causing foreigners to think twice about investing in America? The U.S. has been one of the most stable countries over the past century. It has remained stable through two world wars, numerous administration changes and economic and political crisis around the world.

But America has been borrowing more and more money and has a debt that is approaching $12.1 trillion. Countries do fail because they spend too much and ultimately try to print their way to success.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did something Monday that Fed chairs rarely do: he commented on the dollar.

Comments about the dollar are almost exclusively left to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, but on Monday Bernanke, in a speech before the Economic Club of New York, said the large movement of capital precipitated by the financial crisis "resulted in a marked increase in the dollar," and those flows are now returning to their former status, due to improved credit market conditions and the stabilization of global economic activity.

It's Monday morning. Looking at the boards, the dollar is weaker and gold climbs to another record high. Spot gold in London traded at $1,133.07 per ounce. The December gold futures contract traded at $1,133.50 per ounce.

Again today, the dollar traded down, with the December dollar contract trading at 75.105, down 32 (prices as of 8:39 EDT). The other precious metals followed gold higher. December silver traded at $17.815 per ounce up 43.5 cents. Platinum was at $1,428.90 per ounce, up $41.20. Palladium traded at $365.15, up $8.40

The price of oil has risen from about $30 per barrel at the height of the economic recession to the present $77 per barrel. Much of the increase is due to the weakness in the U.S. dollar. Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil (XOM) told CNBC: "If you put the price of oil, which is priced in dollars around the world, and if you look at what some effects are with the weak dollar -- in our view that is contributing $20 to $25 dollars per barrel to the price."

Globally, Tillerson said, oil is well supplied with historic high inventory levels, especially in the U.S. This is causing the market to be a "bit soft," according to Tillerson.

Late in the evening of November 11, The Daily Telegraph reported that Barrick Gold (ABX) has shut its hedge book because the world gold supply is running out. Barrick Gold's president, Aaron Regent, told the periodical that global output has been shrinking at a pace for nearly 1 million ounces a year since the start of the decade.

At RBC's annual gold conference in London, Regent noted that "There is a strong case to be made that we are already at 'peak gold.'" Regent believes that production peaked around 2000 and has dropped ever since, he adds that Barrick Gold believes the decline will continue because "It is increasingly difficult to find ore."

A word to the wise: Investors should ignore and/or avoid those in the popular press who rush forward with pronouncements about the dollar vis-à-vis the world's other, major currencies.

Sometimes you'll see them on the 24-hour cable news channels at night on FoxNews (NWS), CNN (TWX), and MSNBC (GE). Their research is often simplistic at best, and at times, it's outright wrong.

One common, conventional wisdom articulation concerns the dollar, and it's 'imminent collapse.' Nothing could be further from the truth. But that's the type of flippant conclusion one gets when one uses superficial analysis, as in 'U.S. budget deficit up, U.S. dollar down.'

The US dollar is down 20% since 2002 on a trade weighted basis. Other world economies like China are dynamic, with growth rates of 8 and 9%. With that kind of clout, countries like China, India and Brazil, can choose where to place their reserves.

Slowly, developing countries are shifting their reserves away from the dollar into the euro and yen. Neil Mellor, strategist at Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK), which has some $20 trillion dollars in assets under custody said: "I don't think there will be an imminent move, but it is quite clear there's a plan to shift reserves to a more balanced portfolio."

Barclays Capital Research reported that central banks placed 63% of new cash in non US currencies between April and July.

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve have kept interest rates low for some time. Interest rates lie somewhere below a quarter point and a zero, giving people very little reason to save. Why should you save money when inflation could work against you and the money will not grow?

Low interest rates also work to reduce the cost of borrowing. This could help businesses that want to expand, or the federal government that has trillions of dollars of debt that it needs to finance.

We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.

Here are a few of the names that moved higher during the day to set new 52 week highs.

Investors have probably heard Obama administration officials, like previous Bush administration officials –- and just about every other administration since 1981 -- rattle off the mantra, 'The United States is committed to a strong dollar' even as the dollar continues to weaken. What's going on here?

Well, first: the currency market, long-term, emphasizes actions, not words, and current U.S. public policies do not support the dollar. To strengthen it, the U.S. must cut its trade deficit, eliminate the budget deficit, and get the U.S. economy growing at an adequate rate again.

The U.S. dollar continued to decline today, and has helped push gold prices up sharply in today's action.

The dollar has been very weak lately, and as more concern mounts of the dollar's strength more investors are rushing into the precious metal, which traded up as high as $1,069.70 today, and is currently up $1.70 an ounce to $1,059.20.

The US dollar is cascading downward. This move is causing banks, especially central banks, to shift reserves out of the dollar into the euro and yen.

A Bloomberg survey reports that policy makers boosted currency holdings by $41.3 billion dollars in the last quarter. Nations reporting currency breakdowns put 63% of this new cash into euros, and yen. The dollar's share fell to 37% from 63% in 1998.

How is this affecting the dollar on the commodity futures markets? The dollar fell to 75.77 last week on the Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE). This is the lowest level since March 4th, when it was at 89.62 (The dollar is traded against a basket of currencies.)

Is a 'super-currency' – one that could for all intents and purpose replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency – possible?

Well, it is possible, but in this case the aforementioned switch would certainly be super, as it would represent a gargantuan task and adjustment period for members of the global financial system.

Gold jumped to $1033 per ounce on Tuesday, hitting a record high. Oil rose $1 per barrel. The December dollar contract is at $76.53, down $0.305 (as of 8:11 EDT).

Why is gold moving up? A news story in The Independent, a British paper, reported that secret talks are underway to dump the dollar as the currency for oil transactions. Included in the talks were China, Russia, Japan and France. They want is to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies and gold.