This post was written by Minyanville contributor Lance Lewis

The consensus seems to be blowing off the G20 as a nonevent for the dollar, but then again the consensus didn't anticipate the Fed announcing that it would begin to monetize Treasury debt a couple weeks ago either. And it was that Fed decision that brought us to where we are today.

iShares Barclays Capital Long Term Tr ETF (NYSE: TIP) closed at $102.35. TIP April call option implied volatility is at 10, puts are at 8; below its 6-month average of 13, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price risk.

PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Down (NYSE: UDN) is a rules-based index composed solely of short USDX® futures contracts. The USDX® futures contract is designed to replicate the performance of being short the U.S. Dollar against the following currencies: Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona and Swiss Franc. UDN closed at $25.52. UDN May option implied volatility of 20 is below its 26-week average of 25, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Up (NYSE: UUP) is a rules-based index composed solely of long USDX® futures contracts. The USDX® futures contract is designed to replicate the performance of being long the U.S. Dollar against the following currencies: Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona and Swiss Franc. UUP closed at $25.31. UUP May call option implied volatility is at 17, puts are at 21; below its 26-week average of 22, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

The FOMC will issue its statement tomorrow at the conclusion of its two-day meeting. With interest rates already at virtually zero, there's obviously not going to be any change in that department. However, I do believe there is a high probability that the Fed will follow the Bank of England's example and begin buying government bonds (i.e. – quantitative easing or "printing money") on top of the agency debt and MBS that it is already monetizing.

U.S. stock markets appear to be in free-fall (at least short-term), the federal budget deficit will exceed $1 trillion for at least the next two years, and Congress will likely have to raise the national debt ceiling above $13 trillion -- all negative developments for the dollar.

So what does the greenback do Monday? Of course, it continues to rise -- strengthening about one-half cent versus the euro and more than 2 cents versus the British pound, to $1.2581 and $1.4034, respectively.

On a day when the United States committed up to $2 trillion more in government financing and programs to unlock credit markets -- probably the federal government's largest, one-day implied commitment in history -- the dollar rose against the euro and British pound.

The dollar strengthened 1.2 cents to $1.3821 and a gargantuan 4 cents to $1.4488 versus the British pound. The dollar also rose about one-half cent to $1.1584 versus the Swiss franc.

Now, in theory, increasing dollar commitments by the U.S. government means more dollars in circulation, which means every dollar is worth less -- a sequence that should cause the dollar to fall against the world's other major currencies. Not Tuesday, and really, when you review it, not since the financial crisis took hold in October 2008, so says economist David H. Wang. And the reason is basic: the dollar's status as a reserve currency, and as a safe haven.

The previous U.S. presidential administration preached a great deal about a 'strong dollar policy.'

Unfortunately, almost no actions practiced by the administration supported that goal.

Concerning the federal budget, a decade of deficits has really hurt the dollar's value. A $1.3 trillion tax cut in 2001 ended the balance budget era of the late 1990s, and subsequent increases in defense spending for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars -- combined with a lack of a tax increase to pay for that additional spending -- soon led to +$200 billion budget deficits. After swelling to $300 billion, the bank bailout and related legislation would push the deficit over $500 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and it's projected to top $1 trillion this year and in fiscal 2010.

The dollar, despite the prospect of back-to-back trillion dollar U.S. budget deficits, continues to hold its own against the world's other major currencies. What's more, provided the fiscal stimulus package is passed, the national debt ceiling will increase to $12.1 trillion from the current $11.3 trillion.

The dollar strengthened about 1.5 cents to $1.2867 versus the euro Wednesday, and rose about 1.4 cents to $1.1586 versus the Swiss franc, while remaining essentially unchanged at 89.62 yen and $1.4490 versus Japan's yen and the British pound.

At times, a set of complex factors come to bear on a country's currency; sometimes these factors are seemingly illogical. Such is the case of the Japanese yen. The Japanese economy, along with the rest of the world, is getting weaker; the Japanese stock market is falling; exports are dropping; and the Bank of Japan warned this week Japan's economy probably will contract this year.

So then, why is the yen so strong? Well, first, Japan did not suffer large losses from the sub prime crisis, leaving Japanese banks in relatively good shape. Second, Japanese investors are deleveraging their overseas investments, creating large cash inflows into Japan. Third, the yen is now seen as a "safe haven" currency.

When trading against the dollar, the yen reached a thirteen and a half year high. It reached a seven year high against the euro. The downside of the yen's strength is that it is hurting Japanese exports. There is talk in Japanese banking circles that the Bank of Japan may intervene to curb the rise of the yen. While this move is not imminent, there could be action taken by this March.

Would you buy the Japanese yen?

In 1999, 16 of the 27 countries in the European Union set out to unite and strengthen their economies by adopting the euro, a single currency. In 2002, physical coins and banknotes entered circulation.

Now, only seven years afterward, Standard & Poor's downgraded the economy of Spain from AAA to AA+ stating that the global economic crisis had heightened the "structural weakness" of Spain's economy. A key factor in lowering the credit rating was Spain's growing deficit, which is predicted to range from 5.8% to 6.6% of GDP. In addition, Spain's economy is expected to contract by 2% this year.

The downgrade has caused the spread between Spanish government bonds and German bonds to rise to record levels. The cost of insuring Spanish bonds through CDSs (credit default swaps) has also risen to record levels.

In addition to Spain, the economy of Greece was downgraded from A to A-. Portugal and Ireland are also at risk of being downgraded.

This brings into question just how long the euro can withstand further government downgrades without collapsing, and with Europe reverting back to single country currencies.

Is the euro falling apart at the seams?

These days, the only thing worrying the economists and analysts more than the U.S. economy is the United Kingdom economy.

The U.K.'s situation is worrying currency traders, too. The dollar vaulted 5 cents Tuesday versus the British pound to $1.3890 -- an almost unprecedented move in the currency market -- as traders sensed a deepening recession in the U.K.

The dollar also strengthened 1 cent versus the euro to $1.2940 and 1.2 cents versus the Swiss franc to $1.1422. The dollar was essentially unchanged versus the yen at 90.45 yen.

Currency Trader Andrew Resnick told BloggingStocks Tuesday that with the United Kingdom's decision Monday to allocate an additional $142 billion to support the nation's banks, currency traders "have put the British economy in a time-out chair."

The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to expand its balance sheet. Further, the U.S. government is piling on debt and public borrowing at almost a faster rate than Mexico and Argentina did during "the bad old days" decades ago.

And yet the dollar continues to hold its own against most of the world's other major currencies. The dollar strengthened about 2 cents against the euro and British pound Tuesday at mid-day, to $1.3190 and $1.4538, respectively. Just as significant, the dollar has strengthened about 11% versus the euro and about 22% versus the pound since October 2008.

Big factor: first in, first out

What's going on here? BloggingStocks asked economist Peter Dawson to provide some clarity.

"Three factors are at work. Most important is the economic cycle. The U.S. was the first to enter a recession and it will likely come out of it sooner than Europe and the U.K., so that's supporting the dollar," Dawson said. "Second, there's still considerable flight-to-safety by stock-shy investors, which almost always increases purchases of U.S. Treasuries, another dollar plus."

You read that right. Bloomberg.com has reported that The bank of England has lowered it's benchmark interest rate to it's lowest point since the bank was founded in 1694. How much more proof is needed to make obvious the fact that people and businesses just aren't borrowing money any more?

Even if some stalwart soul had the inclination to borrow some money, are there banks out there which are lending it? In the face of unemployment levels which some say honest calculations put up as high as 16%, banks are becoming adverse to lending money to anyone who might actually need it. Of course I can get you credit card applications all day long, if you're willing to pay upwards of 19% interest on new money.

So you have to wonder, when is it all going to break loose. Honestly folks, if the promise of increased revenue reserves was in any way going to help us, don't you think the contraction would have slowed by now? The only way additional cash will correct anything is if that cash is put directly into the hands of the people who pay the bills. Of course, we all know that will never happen. Our government will continue to drop wads of our yet unpaid tax dollars into the laps of their corporate sponsors. That, for now, is where the buck now stops.

Record-high U.S. budget deficit? Declining corporate earnings? Unemployment likely to rise through at least May?

Don't mention those potential scenarios to the foreign exchange, as currency traders sent the dollar rocketing higher versus the euro early Monday, up 3 cents -- an enormous move in the currency market -- on the belief the Obama Administration's fiscal stimulus package will help the U.S. economy recover from the recession.

The dollar strengthened 3 cents to $1.3566 versus the euro and rose 1.64 yen to 93.50 versus Japan's yen. The dollar has rose 3 cents to $1.1097 versus the Swiss franc, and strengthened about one-half cent to $1.4494 versus the British pound.

Currency trader Andrew Resnick told BloggingStocks Monday trading desks are back at full strength after the holiday and they're clearly signaling that they expect the worst of the U.S. recession to be over by mid-year.

In most locales around the world, the New Year is a cause for a celebration.

But how about a new year celebration combined with the birthday party? Talk about a celebration.

When the new year dawns, Europeans will be doing just that - - at least Europeans in the euro zone: that's because the euro currency turns age 10 on January 1, 2009.

Euro has strengthened Europe

When launched January 1, 1999, 11 nations comprised the euro zone: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Later, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, and Slovenia joined, and Slovakia will become a member on January 1, 2009 to bring euro zone membership to 16.

Further, while some critics still denounce the euro as 'paving the way for end of Europe's broad social safety net' the euro currency has basically achieved its goals, with enormous benefits for Europe's citizens and visitors, so says economist Peter Dawson. The euro traded at $1.3890 Wednesday morning.

This post is part of our feature on Money Losers of 2008. See all 20.

Almost every investor might be counted as a Money Loser of 2008, but anyone who is not living in or invested heavily in Iceland should thank their lucky stars (or anything else they might like to thank). With the global economic situation called as a financial crisis, then I can only assume that the Icelandic meltdown would be a supercrisis or maybe ubercrisis.

Iceland's three largest banks essentially failed in early October of this year, partially as a result of the crisis in U.S. financial markets. As interbank loans were getting tougher and tougher to acquire, Iceland ran into trouble because its banks were too large for the country's central bank to backstop.

From January of 2008 through September, the krona, Iceland's currency, had lost about 35% against the euro. Over the past few years, the U.S. dollar has lost about half of that amount, and it was still a big deal. However, this was just the precursor to Iceland's problems. At that point, it was roughly 130 krona to each euro. By the second week of October, the currency had collapsed and the last trade was at 340 before the government takeover of the banks halted trading. Currently, the system has been stabilized, but it is still 150 krona to each euro.