We may be at the beginning of a financial catastrophe in the West. One indication of this might be that the dollar?which has long been the currency of choice worldwide?is no longer being accepted in many places abroad.

Arabnews.com reports that India’s Ministry of Culture has announced that foreign tourists can no longer pay in dollars when visiting the Taj Mahal?only rupees will be accepted. Iran, Venezuela and Russia, the world?s biggest oil exporters, now accept euros but not dollars. The website quotes Chinese bank official Xu Jian as saying that the dollar is “losing its status as the world currency.”

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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What makes people happy? Doing better than the people around you is what makes some of us feel successful. But after working so hard to climb to the top, why do so many strivers self-destruct?

BBC News reports on a new study that shows that a man is happiest with his paycheck if he is making MORE than his fellow workers in the same office. MRI scans reveal that being paid more than a coworker stimulates the “reward center” in the male brain.

But if a man doesn’t feel like he really DESERVES his success, he may end up tearing himself down. New research shows that how people view their abilities in the workplace impacts how they respond to success.
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