The Dollar and the Trade Deficit in the 1980s: A Personal View

The sharp gyrations of the dollar and of the trade deficit in the 1980s were among the most novel and least understood economic developments of the decade. This paper, which was written as part of the NBER project on American economic policy in the 1980s, examines the reasons for the dollar's swings and the nature of the policy debate about the appropriate government response to the rising and then falling dollar.