I’ve been blogging lately about pressing macro-economic issues – and getting into really instructive conversations with you guys as a result. (If you haven’t already, check out my recent posts on rising commodity costs and the credit crunch.) Bernanke’s recent speech expressing concern about the falling dollar prompted me to read up some more on that issue. Lots of interesting recent commentary on this:

The WSJ (subscription required) outlines the particulars of Bernanke’s speech and includes a nice summary of economic factors impacting and being impacted by the dollar’s value. FT Alphaville also offers a good roundup of key blog-action on this topic.

SeekingAlpha’s always good for brisk commentary and varied views on topics like the dollar. Fritz Hottinger compares the dollar’s fall to a three-act play, starting with Bush’s plea to OPEC nations to keep holding their dollar reserves (despite its decline) and moving to Bernanke’s Act II, where he pledges to support the dollar even though all the available tools of real currency support could spark other problems (more inflation, weakening the economy further, even steeper dollar declines).

Meanwhile, also on SeekingAlpha, this interview with Marc Chandler, chief currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, is a lot more optimistic about the dollar’s near-term future.

If you’re really feeling miserable about inflationary pressures, at least you’re not in Zimbabwe. This receipt for lunch, posted on Barry Ritholz’s Big Picture, is really eye-popping with all those zeros!


[image: US Dollar Bill by SqueakyMarmot on flickr]
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How about some balance to the undeserved optimism surrounding the greenback? http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aP.VpLrg.H38&refer=home

This also gives me a chance to point out the TradeKing Blog's post from yesterday, by sheer coincidence also about the weak dollar:
http://community.tradeking.com/members/tradeking/blogs/9528-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-a-weak-u-s-dollar
 
Next stop, I think I'm going read up more on the strong euro...the extreme strength of their currency doesn't come without disadvantages, after all, and their growth rates are historically very modest by U.S. standards. I just finished reading an article in Business Week about how the European carmakers who make their cars in Europe, where unions are still strong, are struggling or even unable to offer cars for profit here in the U.S.  Volvo and Volkswagon were specific examples in the article.  Volkswagon fascinates me in particular (I drove a 1968 semi-automatic Beetle throughout high school and college) – you’d think their small cars would be perfect for this gas-crunch era, and yet apparently they are losing money on their Beetles and Jettas at their current prices here.  More on that soon!