We have currency problems…We have a big currency problem.      – Former President Trump, via Bloomberg interview, 7/16/24 What’s important there is really the level of the dollar and when the dollar is stronger, obviously our wares are more expensive abroad and that kind of thing, but we don’t have an opinion on… Matters of the level of the dollar are really matters for the Treasury Department and the elected government, not for the Fed.     -Fed

When I hear about the history, when I think about and read about the history of Appalachia and the resource curse, I’m struck by the idea that you could make a similar argument about the reserve currency status of the United States dollar. Americans have enjoyed one of the greatest privileges of the international economy for the last nearly eight decades, a strong dollar that acts, of course, as the world’s reserve currency. You know

Four highly destabilizing things just happened in a brief period of time: 1) Oil prices rose sharply in July; 2) The Bank of Japan widened out its Yield Curve Control tolerance band to 1%; 3) The US Treasury upsized borrowing estimates for calendar 2H23 to $1.85 trillion; 4) Fitch downgraded the US government’s credit rating to AA+.     -8/2/23 edition of FFTT Of the four factors above, only the BOJ move should be a surprise to