By Doug Eberhardt

Every time you hear “the dollar’s down” or “the dollar’s up,” what exactly does that mean? If they say the dollar is currently trading at 76.54, as it is today, what does that tell you about the relative strength of the dollar or its purchasing power? The truth is, it doesn’t tell you much at all.

I began to make this case in Why Gold Is a Better Currency Indicator Than the U.S. Dollar Index. In this article I will further explain how looking at the dollar as represented by the dollar index alone doesn’t paint a complete picture and how inflation and deflation are occurring at the same time and what that means for gold investors.

The Dollar Has Been Up and Down the Last Three Years

We can see from the following chart that the dollar, as represented by the Dollar Index, has been above and below the 80 line a couple of times in each direction the last few years. Does this picture paint whether we have inflation or deflation? How? [Read more…]