The world economy is currently like a passenger in a bus tumbling down a steep incline but with nobody at the controls. There is nothing anyone can do about the imminent crash somewhere in the horizon.
Options:
-run to the chinese yuan; sorry dead end, the yuan is pegged to the US$ and the chinese economy depends on sales to the US
-run to the Euro; oops this is a dead cert to collapse before the $
-try Indian and the so called commodity currencies; again, dead end they are dependant on consumption (of oil, metals and the resultant cars, mobile phones, electronic gadgets) mostly by the west (US)) so their collapse will quickly follow the $ and euro.
S&P's downgrading of US debt has to be the biggest joke in awhile coz there is really nowhere else to run, everything else automatically moves down a notch.
However, this collapse could be a good thing, the world (mostly the west) are over consuming everything based on credit which they can't afford. Seriously, why does an American citizen have to buy a car he can't afford so that he can keep a car factory's doors open to sustain jobs that are not adding any value apart from wasting the worlds resources.
A dollar collapse will have very painful immeadite impact to our exporters and diaspora inflows, but the market correction will certainly make things better because of our negative BOP. We are not as well insulated as say Brazil but the expected price reduction in almost everything that is globally traded will be welcome.
"The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline." James Collins