Can the U.S. government manipulate the real exchange rate for the dollar?

Exchange rates today respond in large part to capital flows—not to the utterances of central bankers and finance ministers. And the vast structural forces affecting those flows—the comparative economic strength of the United States vs. the Eurozone, the insatiable desire by U.S. businesses and consumers for imports—are far beyond the reach of this, or any, administration.

The argument goes through a variety of detailed cases, click here for the full account.