Gold and oil are now the hot commodities and that's driving the US dollar down to new depths.

Oil has now moved past $71 a barrel and gold is now pushing to $1000 an ounce and is tipped to stay there. Investors are now headed for the safe ground, and they're selling out of the US dollar. As Australian business commentator Alan Kohler says, analysts reckon gold could soon double in price reaching $2000 an ounce. It's just crazy.

As a result, the US dollar has plunged to its lowest level this year. What's not helping is the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) calling for the US dollar to be replaced with a global currency. Now of course, that's not going to happen overnight. UNCTAD is not that influential and Japan's former top foreign-exchange official Eisuke Sakakibara reckons the dollar will remain the global currency.

But for how long? The US dollar is effectively being kept on life support by countries like China buying up US debt. It's only a matter of time before before they put pressure on the US to move to a global currency. So the question is this: do we have a US dollar as a reserve currency that's worth zip, or an international currency? That's the question the US and the rest of the world has to sort out to avoid another financial crisis.