The US dollar has appreciated markedly vis-à-vis the euro since July 2008. Why is this so given the present financial crisis? Is this not contradictory? After all, the United States caused the crisis, and it is still raging. Rolf J. Langhammer, the vice president of the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy, gives six reasons for this apparent contradiction in the first brief in the Institute’s new series entitled Kiel Policy Briefs. In  report on Monday, US investment bank Morgan Stanley said in 2009, assuming that the global economy does find a trough by summer, we see the dollar rallying further into the trough, but underperforming most other currencies as the world recovers in 2H.  The swings in the global business cycle will likely be the dominant driver for the dollar.