You know that saying a dollar doesn't buy as much as it used to?

Yeah, that's still true.

From American public media.

This is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizal.

It is Monday, the fifth day of December.

It's always to have you along, everybody.

So how many times do you suppose have we used the phrase strong dollar on this program over the past year or you know a couple of years anyway?

Regular listeners will know or you should if we're doing our jobs right that the answer is many.

The dollars rise as we have told you has been great for Americans traveling abroad.

But it's not so great as we have also told you for American companies that are trying to compete overseas.

Could be though that this moment of the strong dollar is losing some steam over the past month or so.

The greenbacks give up about half of its gains for the year.

Marketplace is just in hope gets us going with what is going on with the dollar and what it might mean.

Part of why the dollar has been so strong this year is because the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates, making U.S. bonds more attractive.

And to buy U.S. Treasury bonds, you've got to have dollars.

But the feds likely to slow down its rate hikes. Chuck Tombs is at manual life investment management.

Other central banks potentially will be hiking rates a little bit more than is expected, which will be beneficial for those local countries currencies relative to the U.S. dollar.

A weaker U.S. dollar could help all the big multinational companies that sell a lot of products overseas.

Catherine Domingue is a professor at the University of Michigan.

Manufacturing companies that are selling abroad and competing with foreign manufacturers may find that they are able to do better with a less strong dollar.

Some American exporters are already benefiting from the weakening dollar.

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