Donald Trump has drawn scorn from economists for his threats to launch a trade war with China and to renegotiate the terms of US sovereign debt. Less noticed, however, have been the Republican presidential candidate’s apparent threats to dismantle another decades-old American orthodoxy: the “strong dollar” policy.
The property developer has been consistent in recent months in warning against a strong exchange rate, even though the US has — notionally at least — adhered to a “strong dollar” policy since the 1990s.
In August last year Mr Trump declared the dollar was “hurting” the US and leading to “huge disadvantages” for companies’ competitiveness. “It sounds good to say ‘we have a strong dollar’. But that’s about where it stops,” he told one interviewer.