Last night, in going to Morristown for a church-related meeting, it was noted that gasoline was running at $3.29 per gallon. It sounds like we are padding the problem to say this, but we are paying a much lower price for gasoline than the rest of the world. That reality doesn't mean that we aren't entering a crisis. People in this country are not used to paying that price for gasoline, and it makes the cost of everything that is transported with an oil-based fuel more expensive. A friend of mine recently said that he took the inflationary pressures on the economy to mean that it must be getting better. If the price of fuel increases, the cost of basic staples will increase to levels making it far more difficult for the average American-or Tennessee-family to afford them.

The President and some members of his party want us to think that this is because of "greedy oil companies." In fact, the economic situation we are seeing could be the beginning of a more lengthy economic process wherein we see the price of fuel rise-and as a result nearly everything else as well-because nations around the world are slowly becoming less dependent upon the U.S. Dollar as their reserve currency. If the exporters of major commodities which our country imports-including oil-begin to demand payment for those commodities en masse in something other than the Greenback, we will see prices on nearly everything go through the roof. The fact that our federal government simply prints more money to keep pace with its debts and can afford to do this because of the Dollar's status as the world's reserve currency exacerbates the potential problem. If the Dollar ever loses that status-a prospect that isn't so far-fetched anymore with China signaling that it intends to move away from large-scale government purchases of U.S. Treasury bills.

Our States are showing themselves largely unable to handle their obligations. Tennessee has been immune from much of the problem because we have been more fiscally responsible than many other States in the past, but we aren't immune from economic trouble. The question will be how the Governor and the General Assembly choose to deal with it.