It feels like everybody sells the dollar, pessimistic about the currency’s prospects in the light of the US looming trade and budget deficits. Not excluding the world’s two richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
``I’m short the dollar,’’ Gates said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ``The ol’ dollar, it’s gonna go down.’’

Buffett, chairman of the Omaha, Nebraska-based investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has been buying foreign currencies since 2002 explaining his move by the threat of the U.S. deficits.

Now the billionaire added $1 billion in foreign-currency contracts to his holdings, with a total of $20 billion of forward contracts in eight currencies on Sept. 30.

The euro zone has a different problem that is a mirror reflection of the falling dollar: the rising euro. The rising currency raises the cost of European exports, curbing eurozone economic growth.

``The governing council of the ECB has repeated a very, very short sentence, namely that the sharp moves upward of the euro were unwelcome and that we thought they were counterproductive from the economic growth perspective,’’ European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said at a Davos panel discussion.

Chinese central bank adviser Yu Yongding said in Davos the obligation to bring the dollar up rests with the US administration that needs to take measures against the record current-account deficit.

``The U.S. should take the lead in putting its own house in order,’’ Yu said. ``It’s the root cause’’ of global imbalances. ``China will make its contribution, but the world should not put disproportionate pressure’’ on the country.