Consider for a moment the U.S. dollar.

That is our economic indicator of choice today from American public media.

This is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai, Rizdole.

It is Wednesday today, the 6th of September.

It is always to have you along, everybody, the dollar.

A greenback, one simoleon, a buck.

It is by far the dominant medium of exchange in global trade.

It is also, not for nothing, the most dominant global reserve currency.

Other countries and big financial institutions want it because it's safe and stable and strong.

Maybe too strong.

Since the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates a year and a half ago, the dollar

has been on something of a tear.

So much of a tear that last year, big companies were complaining the dollar's strength was

eating into their overseas profits.

Currency markets can be volatile, of course, and the dollar spent part of this past spring

and summer getting weaker, but surged with a vengeance in August against Asian currencies

in particular, which is prompted strong words from authorities in Japan and China, both

of which say they will do what they have to to stop their currencies slide.

Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes is on the overseas dollar desk today.

If you're outside the U.S., there is basically one upside to a strong dollar.

Jean-Marie Mieleciferetti of Brookings says U.S. consumers and companies have money

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