Politics & Power Quote by Ross Perot

Perot’s line isn’t economic analysis so much as campaign-grade compression: turn a messy, global system into a moral thermometer. “Weak” does the heavy lifting. Repeat it three times and you don’t need charts; you’ve built a downhill slide from exchange rates to national decline. It’s a businessman’s syllogism dressed up as patriotism: if the dollar is down, somebody mismanaged the store, and the country is the store.

The intent is disciplinary. By tying currency strength to national strength, Perot makes macroeconomics feel like household common sense. No abstractions about trade balances or capital flows; just a simple chain of consequences that invites voters to blame leaders who “let” the dollar fall. The subtext is anti-excuse: globalization, foreign central banks, and cyclical recessions don’t get to be alibis. A strong nation should project strength in its money the way it projects strength in its military.

Context matters. Perot’s politics rose out of late-Cold War anxiety and early-1990s economic unease, when deficits, deindustrialization, and trade fights (NAFTA looming) were becoming kitchen-table fears. Currency, in that moment, was a proxy for sovereignty: if your money can be pushed around, maybe your jobs and borders can too.

Economists would call the claim simplistic; weak currencies can boost exports and reflect deliberate policy. Perot’s point is rhetorical: he’s converting technical signals into a gut-level story about competence, decline, and control. It works because it flatters the listener’s intuition while handing them a clear culprit.