A current debate ensues as to whether the dollar decline is inflationary or not. When faced with several arguments on both sides, I often find it objective and useful to look at charts to determine whether or not there is any truth to either stance.
<img src="http://elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=1656441" border="0" alt=""><br /></font></p></font></p>
While common sense tells me that they are negatively correlated, a cursory glance shows that often times this is not the case. In mid 80s, s both fell in tandem.
Another exercise is to look at whether there is a lag between the two metrics (it seems that if we lag one by a few years, they should line up exactly). This does not provide a perfect correlation either. Keep in mind this is the data we are given by the government, it does not necessarily represent true inflation as there are various ways it is adjusted (but that is another argument outside of what we have to objectively plot).
It's useful to actually plot these things out and look at what really happened before making assessments. The same can be said about the dollar and markets if you look at the data objectively: there is no direct correlation.
<img src="http://elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=1656441" border="0" alt=""><br /></font></p></font></p>
While common sense tells me that they are negatively correlated, a cursory glance shows that often times this is not the case. In mid 80s, s both fell in tandem.
Another exercise is to look at whether there is a lag between the two metrics (it seems that if we lag one by a few years, they should line up exactly). This does not provide a perfect correlation either. Keep in mind this is the data we are given by the government, it does not necessarily represent true inflation as there are various ways it is adjusted (but that is another argument outside of what we have to objectively plot).
It's useful to actually plot these things out and look at what really happened before making assessments. The same can be said about the dollar and markets if you look at the data objectively: there is no direct correlation.