DOLLAR/ECONOMY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “It is the closest thing to a certainty in the global economy. When trouble flares and anxiety mounts, people who manage money traditionally entrust it to a seemingly indomitable refuge, the American dollar.
Yet on Wednesday, in the hours after President’s Trump’s threat to unleash ‘fire and fury’ on North Korea if it continued to menace the United States, global investors sold the dollar. The same dynamic played out in June, as Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations imposed an embargo on Qatar, delivering a fraught crisis to the oil-rich Persian Gulf. And the dollar dipped in July after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia expelled 755 American diplomats, ratcheting up tensions between the two nuclear powers.
Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has surrendered nearly 9 percent against a basket of major currencies.
The dollar remains the dominant instrument for global trade, a role it is unlikely to surrender anytime soon. Yet those who trade in currencies see tentative signs that the dollar may be losing some status as markets grapple with the unorthodox actions of the man leading the nation printing the money…
The dollar has in some sense become an international medium of expression about the American political environment. Its value offers a gauge of sentiment for Mr. Trump’s prospects in achieving his economic goals, as well as worries about his potentially impulsive declarations.”
-Peter S. Goodman, “In the Age of Trump, the Dollar No Longer Seems a Sure Thing,” The New York Times online, Aug. 9, 2017