WASHINGTON - April 25, 2011 - Weakness in the U.S. dollar, which is causing everything to go up in price - including gas prices, food and stocks - is unlikely to go away soon as a selling frenzy hits the currency market.

The greenback is approaching pre-financial crisis lows and threatening to smash through its all-time low when measured against the world's predominant national currencies.

A combination of factors accounts for the weakness, with the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies, huge national debts and deficits, and the consequential possibility of a debt downgrade because of the financial mess in Washington leading the way.

In short, as trader Dennis Gartman noted Thursday, "the rout of the U.S. dollar" is in full effect.

"Panic dollar selling is setting in," Gartman, a hedge fund manager and author of The Gartman Letter, wrote in his daily commentary. "This may carry farther than any of us dream or worse, have nightmares."