Please Stop Pretending that Donald Trump’s Every Utterance Has Magic Powers

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Yesterday Donald Trump said he thought the dollar was “too strong.” Today the Wall Street Journal goes into overdrive to describe the effect of the great man’s words:

Trump Comments Send Dollar Reeling

Reeling! Is that true? Well, the Journal’s own dollar index fell about 1 percent, and sure, that’s a fair amount for a single day. But let’s take a look at the Journal’s index for the entire period since Trump’s election:

Hmmm. The dollar steadily gained strength following Trump’s election based on expectations of his economic and trade policy. Then it started sliding around the start of the new year. Its latest 1 percent drop is hardly significant: it’s dropped that much in a single day before, and it’s still up significantly since Trump’s election. And in case you’re curious, here’s a longer-term view:

So did Trump’s words have a galvanizing effect on the world’s currency traders? It’s possible, but we might want to wait a few days before we say so. There are other things going on in the world too, after all.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

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If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

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