WITH the US midterm elections weeks away, a surging dollar is exposing a central contradiction in President Donald Trump’s economic agenda: currency markets are delivering the opposite of what his administration wants.
Trump’s economic record in the first two years of his second term is being heavily scrutinized. Polls show voters’ approval of his handling of the economy has rarely been lower. That goes a long way toward explaining why betting markets point to his Republican Party losing control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, on November 3.
Yet if there’s any truth to the market adage that a country’s currency is a reflection of the world’s confidence in its economy, Trump should be going into the upcoming vote brimming with confidence. The dollar .DXY has been rising steadily, recently hitting its strongest level in 18 months against major peers.
But a…
