Investor Michael Burry, who predicted the 2008 mortgage crisis and became the inspiration for one of the characters in the movie The Big Short, said that runaway inflation in the United States was significantly undermining the purchasing power of the dollar. On his Twitter account, the economist wrote: «When you see mention of the strong dollar, the almighty dollar, please remember this is only in relation to other fiat currencies. The dollar is not at all strong, and it is not getting stronger. We all see it every single day in prices of everything.» The US dollar index (DXY), which reflects the value of the dollar against a basket of six foreign currencies, hit a 20-year high in May. The index is a weighted average of the dollar versus the euro, Japanese yen, pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc. Over the past year, the dollar index has increased by 13.89%. The maximum was fixed at the level of 105 points at the auction on March 13th. The current DXY is 102.32 points. Many analysts share Burry's view, pointing out that the dollar may be worth more in euros or yen than before, but it can now buy much less due to the sharp rise in prices for food, gas, housing and many other goods and services in the United States. Recall that US consumer prices rose 8.3% year-on-year in April, to their highest level since the early 1980-s.
