Question: Political vacuity is not confined to one side of the Atlantic. As already noted, Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal solemnly intoned in 1978 that ‘‘a good dollar is weak for America.'' It was not good for America, and it wasn't good for Jimmy Carter or the Democrats. Why was failing to devalue the pound the wrong strategy for the UK in 1968, while the decision to devalue the dollar the wrong strategy for the US in 1978?