 Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues podcast. Well, all signs look clear and positive according to the mainstream media. Inflation is lower and predicted to head even lower. It seems now that there is no need for the Fed to continue to raise rates. So we may only get one symbolic increase in rates. And then jobs, jobs still seem to be plentiful and the unemployment rate is near historic lows. And the debt ceiling issue has been taken care of. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is now at the highest level since September 2021. So what's not to love about the economy? Well, here's a little cold water in this episode. Just a minor issue about all the dollars that you use, including the dollars in your salaries and your wages and your pensions and your benefits, your life insurance policy, bonds. Everything that's dollar denominated is subject to the effect of the influence of the value of the dollar. If we look at the dollar, we see a downward path. Going back to when the stock market turned around in early October of 2022, the dollar index was almost 114. And the NASDAQ had fallen to 10,320. Today, in early July of 2023, the dollar index is at 100, falling 14 points. And the NASDAQ is up over 14,000. So while the NASDAQ stock market is up almost 40%, 38%, the dollar index has lost 12% over that same time. If you look at other stock markets, because the NASDAQ is really the leader in a bubble, both up and down, the Dow Jones industrial average over that same period is up 16.5%. And the S&P 500 is up 26.1%. All of that has to take into consideration the fact that the dollar has lost 12% of its value over that time period. And of course, bonds have also lost at least a little bit of money over that time. And of course, most of our wealth and our money is tied up in dollar denominated assets. And stocks and real estate are two non-dollar denominated assets. The cold water, the minor issue this week, is that while stock markets are up, the dollar is down. And we don't forecast the value of the dollar or all of the various effects that change the value of the dollar. But we do know that a decrease in the value of the dollar means higher prices. And if that trend continues, that means more inflation ahead.