I have seen so many of these cycles. The buck goes up, the buck goes down. And, no one knows what is going to happen.

Who would have ever predicted that Democrat Bill Clinton would make the dollar very, very strong. Or that "business" Bush would blow it down the tubes.

Currency predictions are fun... but, pretty much meaningless.

Nonetheless, IMHO, the buck will be much higher within two years. Right after we invade Saudi Arabia.

PS. As to Medicare--I suspect we will see successful efforts to cut US medical spending back to around 9-10 of GDP from the 16-18% of today. This would probably solve the Medicare issue. No other country spends so much on medicine and gets so very little for it.

Health care in the US is pretty mediocre. That's why we are told so many times how great it is. Cut costs, save lives!