Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

When there's a lot of money printing, economists bemoan that it's devaluing the currency, but practically speaking, devaluing the dollar is only important in relation to other currencies; for example, it takes more dollars to buy the euro or the yuan. Ultimately, this means that imports become more expensive, causing Americans to buy less of them; a good thing for American workers. It also means that U.S. made goods are cheaper in foreign markets, which is also a good thing for American workers. In fact, devaluation is such a lucrative trade-off that China manipulates the currency markets to devalue their yuan on purpose, which is supposedly illegal because, of course, every nation would want to do it. However, the U.S. does essentially the same thing by printing money.

Apparently, if the past decades are any example, currency devaluation doesn’t cause economic collapse, nor even an overall change in trade. In fact, even with all the devaluation of the dollar, it's still the strongest currency. Many people attribute that to its reserve status, meaning it's the world's currency, but the reality is that all nations are devaluing their currency in some manner or another, sometimes purposefully, so that in comparison, the dollar is still a pretty good deal. None of this makes any difference unless a nation's consumption exceeds its production including trade, and something like virus lockdowns, mass retirements, or a UBI could change that, then currency devaluation turns into inflation.