By Bob Shapiro
Last year, in May, the US Dollar began to strengthen against most of the other currencies around the world. More correctly phrased, I believe, is that the other currencies fell against the Dollar, since the US government – running massive Balance of Payments deficits – and the US Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, continued to print paper Dollars with wild abandon.
As the Dollar became relatively more expensive – on average by 20%! – than the currencies of our trading partners, US exports became less competitive than previously, so our exports have fallen. Similarly, other countries’ exports to us – our imports – have fallen in price, and US imports are up dramatically.
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