Business: The Free-Falling U.S- Dollar

An angry dispute in which everybody is partly right

For foreign exchange dealers it was a week to remember—or better still, forget. Not since the currency upheavals of 1973 have the world's money markets been in such turmoil. Once again the source of the trouble was the U.S. dollar. After slipping steadily in value all autumn, last week it went suddenly into a free-fall plunge that sent it skidding to postwar lows on money markets from Tokyo to Frankfurt. When the dust finally settled at week's end, a dollar could buy only 241 Japanese...