Listening to the financial leaders of the Group of Seven as they head to Istanbul for talks saying there is a need for a strong U.S. dollar, is ludicrous in the face of the practices of the central banks across the globe, and specifically the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke who haven’t stopped the printing presses for who knows how long.

To have a strong U.S. dollar, everything that has been done in the past couple of years by the U.S. government and Federal Reserve would have not have been able to have been allowed to happen for the U.S. dollar to have maintained some strength. But it did happen, and we are now stuck with the consequences whether we like it or not, and in spite of numerous economists and some lawmakers warning that this would happen if the bailouts became a reality, which they obviously have. Those who couldn’t resist building up what they considered political capital now will have to face the consequences of their actions, although it’s the people that will suffer most from it.

Some think the weak U.S. dollar will help the U.S. economy, but that will only help the small manufacturing sector primarily, which is the reason foreign governments are concerned about a weaker dollar wreaking havoc on their manufacturing industries, which will weaken because of their stronger position against the greenback. In other words, the stronger a foreign currency is against the dollar, the less products those countries will sell in America, because a weaker U.S. dollar will favor American products.

A couple of days ago Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he was committed to a “strong” U.S. dollar, but those are just empty and meaningless words that are completely opposite of the actions he and the Obama administration have taken.

There are a lot of doubts if the U.S. dollar will remain the reserve currency of the world because of the policies of the U.S. government and the allowing of the Federal Reserve to operate without checks and balances in any way. That’s the reason there’s a growing consensus that the Federal Reserve needs to be reined in, and in the short term audited, and in the long term ultimately abolished.

Until someone within the U.S. forces the government to stop its misguided monetary policies, the U.S. dollar will continue to drop in value indefinitely. Already over the last 100 years or so its dropped 95 percent in value, and there’s nothing being done to change that from continuing on. This is why talk of an alternative reserve currency is being bantered about, with the Chinese renminbi and the Euro being considered as either potential replacements or possibly co-reserve currencies with the U.S. dollar. Already some Asian countries are trading without the U.S. dollar as the currency used.

Don’t be fooled when a temporary rise in the dollar occurs, as the sentiment is so negative toward it that it will probably trigger a temporary surge in strength, which would probably come about from the liquidity around the world tightening up. But that won’t last, and the downward collapse of the dollar will continue.

Unless the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve reverse their horrendous practices and policies, this will be the way of life for the dollar until it becomes worth not much more than the paper it’s printed on.

As far as the idea that everyone needs a strong U.S. dollar, I’m not so sure that’s even true any longer. A strong U.S. dollar helped the exports of other countries because we bought their goods. Now that China, and to a lesser degree India and smaller Asian countries and their growing middle classes will become the major driver of consumption for many years, the strength of the U.S. dollar will become less and less important.

For the short term though, it’s extremely important for other countries that the U.S. dollar remain strong for the reasons stated, but that’s not going to be the case, and focus and demand for products and services will continue to shift to Asia, and they will become the place countries look to to sell their wares, gradually moving away from counting on the U.S. for their success and profitability.

This will happen over time, and the U.S. obviously is still wealthy in the sense of disposal income, but it will probably take years before consumers in the U.S. feel comfortable with reverting back to former spending habits, if they ever do; and so whatever happens with the U.S. dollar will become less important than it has been in the past, and it’ll continue to fall in value against most major currencies for a long time into the future, with the exception of occasional upward surges which won’t last long.

Another key variable is people were using their homes as giant piggy banks to fund their purchases. That will also probably never return as a practice in the country, at least to the degree it had in the past, so that will also cut deeply into the availability of spending money for consumers in America.

There’s nothing to indicate this will ever change, no matter what the assertions by U.S. officials are. Only action, not words, will change the fate of the dollar, and those actions haven’t been and aren’t willing to be taken at this time by government officials, and so the slide in value of the U.S. dollar will continue on indefinitely.