Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Americans say it is important for the dollar to remain the currency of the United States, including 70% who say it is Very Important.

Only three percent (3%) say it is not at all important if the dollar remains America’s currency, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

China’s top government banker and a United Nations panel have both proposed that the dollar be replaced with a new global currency. However, only 21% of American adults believe the proposal is intended primarily to help the global economy.

Forty-nine percent (49%) think the proposal for a new global currency is designed to weaken the economic power of the United States. Most investors (54%) hold that view.

Just 41% of Americans say they have been following news reports about the proposals to replace the dollar, with 19% following Very Closely. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say they haven’t followed the story at all.

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner generated concern in Washington when he seemed willing to consider a proposal for replacing the dollar, then later backtracked on it. At issue is not replacing the money in Americans’ wallets but what currency will be the world standard against which all other monies are measured.

U.S. voters are closely divided over whether the current worldwide economic crisis is more likely to create tension between the United States and other nations or more likely to foster cooperation.

Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans favor a law introduced in the House of Representatives that prevents the dollar from being replaced by a new global currency, but 33% are opposed to any such law.

Consumer and investor confidence has been rising in recent weeks to the highest levels since last fall.

More U.S. voters than ever (54%) think the nation’s allies should do what the United States wants them to do rather than vice versa.

In February, 43% of voters agreed with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that China is not America’s adversary and that both countries help each other to succeed.

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