Expert Views

Foreign Exchange Traders:

“The dollar is overvalued—and everybody knows it.”  -- Morgan Stanley currency expert Joachim Fels, in Fortune Magazine

“We judge the dollar to be high relative to its fundamentals, something on the order of 20% at most”  -- Larry Kantor, Global Head of Currency Strategy for J.P. Morgan Chase

U.S. Government officials:

The strong dollar is “bad for manufacturers” – Glenn Hubbard, Chairman, Council of Economic Advisors

“… a strong dollar that fuels export-led growth globally has conspired to bring an unprecedented flood of imports into the United States.” - Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative

“Another cause of the trade deficit … is the high U.S. dollar versus other countries’ currencies.    In fact that is the main reason we have a trade deficit – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus

“The high value of the dollar is expected to continue to impair the U.S. competitive position in world markets - Keith Collins, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture

World Economic Groups:

One of the significant risks to the sustainability and durability of the upturn in the U.S. and elsewhere is the “apparent overvaluation of the U.S. dollar” - International Monetary Fund

“The euro is very undervalued (against the dollar).” -  European Central Bank

Economists:

“The strong -- most would say, overvalued -- dollar has meant enormous American trade deficits.” – Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank Chief Economist

“Every rise of 1% in the trade-weighted dollar produces a rise of at least $10 billion in the U.S. current account deficit.” –  C. Frederick Bergsten, Director, Institute for International Economics

Presidential Export Excellence Award Winners:

“The overvalued dollar has stopped our growth overseas…we can no longer afford to invest in new equipment and are under a great deal of pressure to eliminate jobs here in the U.S. – Kim Reynolds, President and CEO of Markel Corporation, March 2002 recipient of the  prestigious Presidential E-Award.

And … Paul O’Neill:

As Treasury Secretary, he has not said the dollar is overvalued, but in the past he stated the dollar can become too strong and harm U.S. industry.  Speaking in 1985, he said the then-strong dollar “has turned the world on its head… We’ve suffered a major loss in competitive position because of exchange rates.”  - Paul O’Neill, President, International Paper, 1985