The US dollar will be weaker under Joe Biden’s presidency – here are six reasons why

The decline of the US currency is not a sign of trouble ahead but a great global shift in investor sentiment, explains Hamish McRae

The fall of the dollar does not reflect a mistrust of Joe Biden (Reuters)

The Biden dollar will be weaker than the Trump dollar. Or at least that is the majority view of the investment community: that the dollar, which had already lost a little of its shine in the past few weeks, will decline further. The irony of that is that this is rather what Donald Trump wanted. True, he was a bit ambivalent about it, but eventually came out strongly against Federal Reserve policy because it had the effect of strengthening the currency.  

So Joe Biden looks like getting what was denied to his predecessor. Why?  

Well the first thing to say is that this is not signalling any lack of confidence in his new pick as treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, or indeed the rest of his economic team. Her appointment in particular has been warmly welcomed both within the US and abroad. Rather it is one of those great global shifts in investor sentiment that take place from time to time.