Euro weakens, US dollar soars, Swiss cut rates in global currency wars

Central bankers are vying to boost domestic buying power at the expense of exporters

The European Central Bank’s Isabel Schnabel started it. In February she flashed a chart showing how much the euro had weakened against the US dollar. Two months later, Bank of Canada’s Tiff Macklem bemoaned the decline of the Canadian dollar. Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan suggested he’d like to see a stronger franc.

The US dollar had been soaring — now up 7 per cent for the year — as the Federal Reserve (Fed) prepared to aggressively combat inflation. And so one by one, central bankers elsewhere, just as desperate to tame the relentless march of inflation in their