News Analysis The U.S. dollar has had a tremendous 2021, defying the market’s bearish expectations since the beginning of the year. Over the last 18 months, the consensus on Wall Street has been that the dollar would endure significant weakness amid inflation worries, historically low interest rates, and investor confidence in a recovering global economy. Instead, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which gauges the greenback against a basket of currencies, is up more than four percent year-to-date as traders continue to take cover from uncertainty by hiding in conventional safe-haven assets. Since the end of the Second World War, the U.S. dollar has served as the premier international reserve currency, with foreign governments and central banks accumulating reserves of dollars instead of gold. Today, there remains a fierce appetite for Treasurys as foreign holdings of U.S. debt soared to a fresh record high of $7.56 trillion in August. But there …