Thank you for opening up this topic, because I, too, am rather mystified.
First, to your framing query:
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From what I read on the web it's supposed to start increasing soon, but...[what's next?]
Do you guys have any idea why it started dropping that much lately and whether it should increase or will it keep falling?
The first remark comports with my understanding. But adding to my mystification has been the growing strength of the Eurozone in the face of so much negative structural overhang (eg, Brexit, Italy's massive non-performing loans - by comparison the Greek problem that caused much of the Euro crisis is almost nothing; and the growing imported unemployable welfare class of immigrants).
The second question about recent dollar weakness in 2017, especially the second half, could all be down to interest rate confusion from the mismatch of Obama's Fed team versus the emergent Trump team and business policy.
To put the issue baldly, why dollar weakness in the face of strengthening US GDP?
The Fed began raising interest rates before Trump's election (if I recall correctly), yet only managed to raise rates the minimal 0.25% once or twice a year. This unexpected timidity seemed to confirm GDP weakness instead of expected strength.
Here was the view over two years ago, in the Fall of 2015:
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This is the chart that shows FOMC participants’ views of the appropriate target federal funds rate by the end of each year for 2015 through 2018 and also over the longer run. Each participant’s fed funds rate forecast is shown as a distinct dot at each of these time horizons.
Let us focus for a moment on the median policy projection, highlighted with a red dot, for the end of 2015: Most of my colleagues think that it will be appropriate to raise the target federal funds rate sometime this year. Over the next three years, these projections envision a slow increase in the rate, to about 3-1/2 percent by the end of 2018.[13] On average, this path is consistent with the target federal funds rate increasing by 25 basis points at every other FOMC meeting over the next three years. This is certainly a gradual path by historical standards....
https://www.streetinsider.com/ETFs/Feds+...66326.html
The trouble has been that rate rises have lagged real interest rate costs (ie, Interest - Rate of Inflation).
Thus, holding dollars has been a net cost. Given the rival opportunities (eg, a resurgence in emerging markets), this real cost is even higher, and therefore the dollar has fallen as the holders of Treasuries have dumped dollar-denominated assets.
And that's what we see here:
Can you say the expert Fed bankers have not adjusted interest rates fast enough? Probably.
SOURCE, further discussion plus some (possibly wild) speculation at Zerohedge:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-1...means-gold
In doing my own research, I was curious about what the economist might have to say. Based on this link:
http://www.economist.com/topics/dollar
not much!
So. Will US growth in 2018 result in a rising dollar sooner or later? Beats me!
The starting point of the Zerohedge piece is the inversion of fundamental expectations. IS that what's going on here? Or will there be a reckoning? Will US GDP performance crush this inversion at some point? And how can one tell that it's coming?
This is the conundrum involved in the multiple QEs witnessed since the Great Recession of 2008 - treating the problem with unprecedented measures and 'normalizing' rates after the emergency ended.
Can we crowd source some wisdom? I hope others share their insights, too.