Meanwhile, what’s directly hammering dollar exchange rates is a more technical second-order impact of rising prices in the U.S. As Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve raise interest rates to fight domestic inflation, American dollars and Treasury instruments become far more attractive investments. That’s part of why U.S. stocks are dropping, and the same dynamic is encouraging investors worldwide to swap from yen, euros, pounds and yuan into dollars to reap the 4% low-risk yield on the two-year Treasury bond.