Make the Dollar Great Again

Certain members of the Trump Administration seem to be taken in by the siren call of a weak dollar.

- By Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief

The idea is that cheapening the value of the greenback will improve our trade balance by making imports more expensive and our exports cheaper. This ignores the real-world reality that any short-term advantage will be overwhelmed by the inflationary damage to the domestic economy that a devalued dollar will wreak.

In the early 2000s, the George W. Bush administration believed a gradually weakening dollar would boost trade and help the economy. The result was the debacle of 2007-09, from which we still haven't fully recovered. The hard truth is that a mighty dollar is crucial to maintaining the U.S. as a powerful world leader.