NT,
The reasoning behind the apocalyptic rumours seems to be that:
...having considered their exposure and having finally taken a long hard look at America's oft-neglected balance sheet, traders/institutions/governments are going to dump the dollar in favour of commodities such as gold, platinum, silver and currencies such as the euro...
...the result: devaluation or perhaps even a run on the dollar by speculators.
Could this actually happen this quickly? Just a couple of days after the bailout?
The Luke