When the U.S. dollar is strong relative to other national currencies, our paychecks stretch farther and we can buy more stuff.  Conversely, when the U.S. dollar is weak relative to other national currencies we can't buy as much stuff and our standard of living goes down.  So the fact that the U.S. dollar is "having its worst start to the year since 1973" should deeply alarm all of us…

The US dollar — once a pillar of American economic strength — is having its worst start to the year since 1973.

President Trump's whipsawing trade and economic policies have prompted investors to sell what is still the world's dominant currency.

So far in 2025, the dollar index — which tracks the greenback against major currencies like the euro and pound — has dropped more than 10 percent.

That marks the sharpest first-half fall since the collapse of the gold-backed Bretton Woods system more than 50 years ago sent the dollar down 15 percent.

Were you alive in 1973?

If so, you probably remember that it was a horrible year.

The Vietnam War was raging, tax rates were sky high, crime rates were rising, the U.S. economy was in really rough shape, and Arab nations hit us with a crippling oil embargo.

Unfortunately, we are facing a similar scenario today.  We are involved in wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the federal government is drowning in debt even though tax rates are still way too high, there has been rioting in the streets of Los Angeles and other major cities, economic conditions just continue to get worse, and a global trade war has erupted.

The rest of the world is losing confidence in us and in our currency, and the dollar index fell once again on Monday…

The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.15% to 97.05, on track for its sixth straight month of losses. It is set to mark its worst half-year since the 1970s.