George W. Bush Lit The Dollar Fire On Which Trump Throws A Match
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WASHINGTON – DECEMBER 20: U.S. President George W. Bush answers questions during a news conference … More in the White Hosue Brady Briefing Room December 20, 2007 in Washington, DC. Bush urged Congress to work on important legislative matters and not be distracted by the fact that it’s an election year. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Getty Images Presidents get the dollar they want, and George W. Bush wanted a weaker one. Bush’s departure from the Reagan/Clinton era of a largely strong, stable dollar as a measure of constant objective value was one of his worst policy decisions, and it’s one that no president subsequent to Bush has chosen to reverse. When Bush entered the White House in January of 2001, a dollar was worth 1/260th of a gold ounce. When he exited in January of 2009, a dollar purchased 1/874th of a gold ounce. To be clear, gold itself doesn’t move as much as the currencies in which it’s measured do. Gold’s constancy explains why it’s long been used to define money. Against the dollar, gold rose over 230 percent during Bush’s presidency. That Bush failed economically as president is vivified by the dollar’s decline. Investment drives economic growth, and when money is trusted there’s a greater incentive to put it to work in pursuit of the discovery of new forms of wealth. If new ideas come to fruition, investors are rewarded with dollar returns that well exceed the initial dollars committed. That explains why a weak dollar is so inimical to economic growth. Precisely because investors seek returns in dollars, there’s reduced incentive to put wealth to work since any returns in dollars will exchange for fewer and fewer goods. That’s why periods of currency devaluation (in other words, inflation) coincide with slower growth: rather than putting money…
Filed under: News - @ May 11, 2025 2:12 pm