There's a simple rule in poker: if you don't know who the is the patsy, it's you. The same applies in the currencies game. A group of concerned central banks met this week to discuss the sliding US dollar. The group included the central banks of China, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN countries. It did not include the Fed. Those at the meeting speak for banks that own trillions of US dollar assets which they know they cannot sell or even stop buying. The Fed, will not admit it but wants a weaker US dollar, albeit an orderly depreciation. Brad Sester (via Brad deLong) notes there have now been some breaks in the ranks. Billmon makes the analogy with a famous Monty Python scene (one of my all-time favourites).

It's one thing to be the patsy. It's another to be the last patsy at the table.