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Raw data: The US dollar is the strongest currency in the world

The US may be suffering through high inflation, but so is everyone else. And our overall economy looks pretty good. The rest of the world sure thinks so, anyway:

That's the exchange rate of the dollar against a broad basket of other currencies, and it's been going nowhere but up for the last year and a half. This is an indication that nearly everyone on the planet is betting that the United States is the best positioned economy in the world right now.

35 thoughts on “Raw data: The US dollar is the strongest currency in the world

  1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    More chartporn to distract us from Kevin's refusal to either express fullthroated support for his ideologic fellow traveller Meghan Mc Cardle & condemn the Woke Mob's hysteric effort to kancel her or offer that maybe Mc Meghan's Glibertariana is actually just simple psychopathic cruelty & not a principled position in favor of an individualist utopia.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        Possibly.

        But so does a coldhearted subhuman like Mc Meghan. She's only three & a half months younger than Eminem, & if one had said in summer 1999 that the man who rapped "Hillary Clinton tried to slap me & call me a pervert / I ripped her fuckin' tonsils out & fed her sherbert // lately I've been feeling on edge / I grabbed Vanilla Ice & ripped out his blonde dreads / every girl I've ever gone out with has gone lez / now do you want to do exactly what the song says?" in twenty years time would be more Woke than the woman who started out canvassing for Ralph Nader's consumer advocacy group, one would have been called a liar.

        (Also: considering that line about Shrillary C, it's amazing Lynne Cheney & other GQPers find Marshall Mathers so unobjectionable. In fact, Brett Kavanaugh likely could have cited Em in the final draft of the report of Kenn Starr's Whitewater investigation.)

          1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

            What else to call someone who cheered Ron Paul's 2012 GQP Presidential Debate performance of "Let him die"?

        1. Special Newb

          He calls her a bad wife in Without Me.

          Incidently I think Megan is childless while Mathers has 3 kids one his own who are in their 20s. I think that counts for a lot in why he might be more open.

  2. xi-willikers

    Thanks Obama, or Biden, or Trump, or whoever I decide to give credit/blame to for unrelated economic trends!

    On a related note I don’t know why this isn’t the standard response to inflation for Democrats. “It’s happening literally everywhere in the world, how can you blame us for that” But for some reason they never say it

    I guess if it goes away and you passed the blame already, you can’t take credit for fixing it. But for some reason I think a lot less thought than that has gone into how to overcome the electoral inflation headwind. Messaging seems feeble

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      It is!

      Not even Joe Manchin is malign or idiot enough to posit only the USA is experiencing stagflation (as a result of overly generous Plandemic subsidies).

    2. golack

      "But mom, everybody's doing it...." Never won an argument, and that's how it will sound to most people. Explaining inflation, which is complex, takes time, not sound bites. In general, policy positions proposed by Democrats are meant to work, so are harder to explain and don't fit neatly into sound bites.

      As an aside, Biden should have went with Building our Future, not Build Back Better.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        Sounds like Bill Climpton's Bridge to the 21st Century, when the Bill Climpton moment joebiden needs to be using is Sistah Souljah.

    3. lawnorder

      One of the "logical" consequences of American exceptionalism is that the US does not follow, the US leads. American inflation may well be exported to other countries, but the US does not import inflation from abroad.

  3. Lounsbury

    For better or worse Drum, no it does not mean "the United States is the best positioned economy in the world right now." (nor does it not mean that).

    What it means is that on a broad basis asset managers are betting on Fed rises in rates - dollar rates looking more attractive than other major currencies.

    Dollar strengthening at this stage is not a specific statement on the US Economy. This said, it is indeed the case that Eurozone is looking weaker - which is of course one reason ECB is semi-paralysed in indecision between accelerating inflation and recessionary impact, and the threats of Putin's impact.

    1. Spadesofgrey

      Stronger dollar helps financial companies build capital. It's why during the peak of the financial crisis, the dollar surged in periods.

      It sucks if your a Turk though.

    2. jdubs

      So you agree that the US economy is looking stronger and asset managers expect the Fed to continue to act as if the US economy is stronger...but gotta pick some nits? Alrighty then!

      1. Lounsbury

        No, that is not what was written.
        The reaction on dollar is not being driven by a view on the US economy, it is being driven by rates, which are not being driven by "strong US economy" but by a Fed rate rise forecase driven by inflation driven by a supply shock. US economy as strong is not the driver here, inflationary price rises from multiple supply shocks is. There is a fundamental difference. The US economy actually rather is looking to weaken from the PoV of equities, but from the PoV of people seeking Government Issuances placements US looks advantageous, for reasons fundamentally not "because US economy is looking stronger"

  4. Salamander

    Watch for it: any action to fix the exchange rate will be received with screams and howls about how the Democrat Party is "DEBASING THE DOLLAR!!"

  5. jharp

    “This is an indication that nearly everyone on the planet is betting that the United States is the best positioned economy in the world right now.”

    Well played, Mr. President.

    And I know, We are not worthy.

  6. cld

    This is an indication that nearly everyone on the planet is betting that the United States is the best positioned economy in the world right now.

    Everyone but conservatives, whose purpose is to create failure wherever they and are offended by it's absence.

  7. jte21

    What's weird is that normally oil prices and the value of the dollar are inversely related. The record oil prices we've been seeing until recently should have pushed the dollar way down, or the dollar put downward pressure on oil, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

  8. galanx

    Read an economist long ago who, instead of talking about a strong dollar and weak dollar, with impllcations of flag-waving and God Bless the USA on the one hand, and images of 'America in crisis' with furriners rioting against the US Embassy and shadowy sinister Davos types on the other, we should get rid of the moral views by simply calling it the fat dollar and the skinny dollar.

  9. AZCatsFan

    Oil is priced in USD, and most of the world is easing (i.e. their currency is weakening against USD) while the US is tightening. Most of the world can not afford energy right now, strengthening USD will not help that. This will cause a lot of unrest in the rest of the world as countries are not able feed their citizens due to lack of energy. The next year is going to see a massive increase in instability in the developing world, with the developed world closer to follow.

  10. D_Ohrk_E1

    Maybe you should put up parallel charts showing Treasuries (including TIPS), gold, and indices for stocks, corporate and muni bonds.

  11. illilillili

    That must be helping to contribute to inflation. The price of imported goods is up 12% over the last 18 months just due to the strength of the dollar. Cut interest rates, cut inflation!

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