TIPs From Uncommon Wisdom

Dollar Begins Decline
by Larry Edelson on March 19, 2009

The much anticipated decline of the US dollar appears to have started with yesterday’s announcement that the Federal Reserve will start buying up to $300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage bonds. The action is expected to expand the central bank’s balance sheet by $1.15 trillion. The excess supply of dollars is threatening investors with fears of an inflationary spiral. The Dollar Index reflected this as it fell 2.7%, the largest one day drop since 1971.

The dollar started on a declining trend in 2005 amid concerns for the United States’ expanding current account deficit. However, this trend was largely reversed last year as investors flocked to risk free U.S. Treasury Bills amid panic in global financial markets, raising demand. Analysts also agree much of the demand for the dollar was made up of investors unwinding their positions, and was not actual sustainable demand.

My Opinion: These actions emphasize the severity of the economic crisis in the U.S. While the recession has taken its toll on most economies, central banks have largely avoided printing money at the pace the Fed has. Eventual devaluation isn’t a hypothesis but rather a proven fact — printing money leads to inflation, which erodes the value of the currency in question. One needn’t look further than Zimbabwe to see this in action.

As more money is printed, there is more currency chasing the same amount of goods. Production isn’t increasing in the United States and all this excess capital will be representative of the same volume of production. If for example there was $100 in an economy which produced 10 equal products, each product would be valued at $10. If the central bank printed an extra $50 and let it circulate without any matching increase in production, $150 would be representative of the same 10 products, thus pricing them at $15 each, resulting in 50% inflation.

As inflationary pressure mounts, I expect more investors to dump dollars in favor of assets that offer a better inflationary hedge, like gold.