Michael Gapin

So there's a number of factors that are causing dollar volatility.

And yes, usually officials, whether it's the Treasury or the Fed, will get worried about rapid movements in currency markets.

And we did kind of get that this week.

And we had comments by Treasury Secretary Besant today, no, we're not intervening in favor of a weaker dollar.

So sometimes policymakers do have to step up to at least stabilize the situation and reduce volatility.

But I would expect that these dollar concerns will be with us for some time.

And to your point, concerns about debasement of fiat currencies, and therefore that may drive demand at certain points in time for things like crypto, Bitcoin, and gold.

Well, I think it's akin to what Treasury Secretary Besson said in the sense of, hey, we're

we're going to at least come to you in the moment without expressing too much concern.

We've got a handle on the situation.

I would agree with you.

I wouldn't read too much into those comments.

And I would just read the totality of the administration's response to it, including what Secretary Besson said.

So that said, I think what the market is concerned about is...

If you go all the way back to the Mar-a-Lago Accord, which was viewed as generally an expression of the administration's intent on economic and trade policy, there is a lot in that document about an overvalued currency and the negative effects that that has had on, say, U.S.

manufacturing employment and the outsourcing of activity outside the U.S.,

So I think investors come to the table in this discussion thinking the administration wants a weaker dollar.

So they're probing, is this what you want?

Is this what you wanted?

And so that's where I kind of think that, therefore, they're hypersensitive to anything that the president or the treasury secretary would say around this issue.