The market is having one of those days that makes you want to close your trading app and pretend it’s all just a bad dream. With the NYSE dropping 4% after hours, my morning coffee suddenly tastes a bit more bitter than usual. The chatter online has been fascinating, with references to everything from Chernobyl to panic buying – because apparently, we never learn from history.

Looking at the discussions online, there’s a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Remember the toilet paper hysteria of 2020? Some folks are already joking about stocking up again. The collective trauma is real, folks.

The latest news about our dollar potentially dropping to pandemic-era lows has been making waves in financial circles, and it’s hard not to feel a bit uneasy about what this means for our economic future. The morning discussion over my batch brew at my local café turned pretty serious when this topic came up.

Let’s be honest - our economy has always had this peculiar relationship with rocks. Not just any rocks, mind you, but specifically the iron ore we’ve been digging up and shipping off to China for decades. This dependency has served us well during the mining boom, but now it’s starting to look like a double-edged sword. With China’s construction industry cooling off and their economy showing signs of struggle, our dollar is feeling the impact.