Forex investors see new president helping dollar

Currency investors are not particularly enamored with either of the two U.S. presidential candidates but they are more than ready for change after the U.S. dollar's 33.8 percent decline under President George W. Bush.

Bush has presided over the worst drop in the dollar of any U.S. President since the developed world moved to flexible exchange rates in the early 1970's.

And though analysts are not completely blaming Bush for the dollar's slump, they say neither Republican Senator John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama can do any worse.

"One would think that just about anyone would be an economic improvement on one of the most reckless fiscal presidents we've ever elected," said Chip Hanlon, president of Delta Global Advisors, Inc. in Huntington Beach, California.

The New York Board of Trade's dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of six currencies, has lost 33.8 percent since Bush first took the oath of office on January 20, 2001. From a peak in July, 2001, the slide is even more dramatic at 39.3 percent.

Based on the dollar's performance, Craig H. Russell, Beijing-based chief market strategist for China at Saxo Bank, says the Bush presidency has been more unpopular than the era of President Richard Nixon, who eventually resigned the White House in disgrace after being implicated in the Watergate scandal.

Nixon closed the so-called gold window on August 15, 1971, effectively ending the dollar's ties to gold prices and the system of fixed exchange rates in place since World War Two.