The U.S. dollar has been awfully strong against global currencies since 2014. In the past couple months, the dollar weakened a bit, though it’s still well ahead of where it was before the big climb. A strong dollar is a vote of confidence, or at least relative confidence, from the rest of the world. Global investors are putting money into America because they think it’s a better place for it than other countries. But that’s little comfort for America’s exporters, who lose revenue when a beefy dollar makes their goods more expensive abroad. That is the little reality trap the U.S. economy finds itself in. The world’s envy makes America’s currency strong. But that strength makes it harder to get breakout growth.

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