The payoff and the perils of a strong currency
The economic turn-around promised by Ronald Reagan is still dim and distant, but at least one stunning shift in U.S. financial fortunes has already unfolded: the rebound of the dollar. Since January, the American currency has risen by 14% against the Japanese yen, 27% against the West German mark and 33% against the Italian lira.
The spectacular surge in the value of American money is an abrupt reversal of a decade-long, disorderly slide that began in August 1971, when President Nixon severed the dollar's traditional link to gold. In the years that followed, relentless...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
