"It has been a roller-coaster ride this year, it really has.The market has lost 2.9 trillion dollars within the last three weeks", says one trader. Although Wall St has recovered many of the losses from the last month, no one denies that the cost has been high; tarnished credentials, scarcity of jobs and the repercussions of spending cuts that will be felt around the world. Some inside Wall St say that the debt ceiling negotiations and the subsequent downgrading of the US credit rating is completely absurd, serving only as a distraction to the deeper problems."I think it is like Wiley Coyote walking off the side of a cliff. Eventually we will look down and realise we are not standing on anything." But others have faith in the US dollar, convinced that as the world's reserve currency it will always survive and be accepted. The question is; who will pay the price?