I usually spend a good amount of time in my classes stressing the confusion caused by the "strong" vs. "weak" terms. Similarly, trade "deficits."

A strong dollar is good for consumers of imported goods and bad for producers of exported goods. A weak dollar is the opposite. Neither is intrinsically good or bad.

As someone who likes to travel overseas and buy imported stuff, I like a strong dollar, but there's a trade-off, and neither is intrinsically better than the other.

There some very well known scenarios of the opposite, but in general an average person still benefits from stronger currency. Weaker currency is good for exports, but even if you happen to work in exports, you'll be paid in that weaker currency yourself and your purchasing power would suffer.

If you own shares in exporting companies or if you are starting a new job in the exporting sector that didn't exist before when the currency was stronger, then it'll benefit you directly, but it is a more narrow scenario.

A strong currency can result in unemployment and a weaker currency better employment, all else equal. So you may have better purchasing power *conditional on having gainful employment*, but a strong currency can mean you're unemployed instead.

There's a reason that currency manipulation usually involves a country keeping its currency artificially *under*valued.

I feel like having more buying power is objectively better no? I get that there are trade offs for domestic producers but ultimately if we’re not trying to get prosperity for your everyday person, what’s the point of economic policy

It's not "objectively" better in any sense of that word. But I also promise that you would not think a strong dollar is subjectively better if we had a recession. Export-led recoveries are a good thing.

A strong dollar is good because it allows us to trade dollars for goods and services.

A strong dollar is bad because it makes our goods and services more expensive for foreigners. (In fact it's neither good nor bad. Some people win, other people lose.)

Dollars are created at no expense to the US. Trading dollars for foreign goods and services makes the US, on balance richer.

You're right. We should print infinity dollars to get infinity foreign goods and services, since it's all free anyway.

The downside of a trade imbalance is not that it exists, but that it might suddenly end.

As far as I can tell, this is a non-sequitur relative to the conversation we've had up to this point. At least I can't see any sort of connection.

Sorry to confuse. If you follow the line of thinking that receiving goods and services in excess of what we send abroad leaves us with more of the things we want/need and is a good thing, then the idea that the advantageous arrangement might end (because the dollar becomes weak) is concerning.