Another Look at the Dollar
John M. Mason submits:
As European financial markets seem to be stabilizing, it is time to look again at the value of the U.S. dollar. After the heat over the sovereign debt crisis cooled somewhat the value of the dollar, once more, headed south. Over the past two years or so, global markets have seemed to be saying, if the financial world is going to fall apart today, I want to be holding some kind of dollar assets. However, if I am to bet on the value of the dollar over an extended period of time, then I want to hold assets denominated in other currencies.
As one can see from this chart showing a trade-weighted index of the United States dollar against the major currencies of the world, the general drift of the value of the dollar since the early 1970s has been downward. There are two major upswings. The first relates to the tightening of credit by the Federal Reserve under the leadership of Paul Volcker. This is the upswing that goes from about 1980 to 1986. The second upswing came during the federal budget tightening led by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin which eventually resulted in a budget surplus and lasted from about 1995 into 2001.
