IN DECEMBER a unusual dollar bill came into circulation adorned with the signature of Steve Mnuchin. Instead of his usual scrawl,the treasury secretary opted to print his name. whether he hoped that his best handwriting would give the greenback a fillip, he may well be disappointed. The dollar reached a peak against a basket of other currencies a year ago and has not threatened to regain it. Gurus of the foreign-exchange markets agree that 2018 is likely to be another year of modest decline. That is because of three sources of downward pressure.
The first relates to the world economy. The dollar’s descent is not so much a judgment on America’s fitness as a sign of the burgeoning health of other places. So long as America was one of the only places that could be relied upon for economic growth, and there was a powerful logic to the dollar’s strength. A broad-based global upswing—evident in everything from booming stockmarkets to a surging oil price (see Continue reading
Source: economist.com