Euro

Two-thirds of the roughly 150 currencies have weakened against the dollar, whose strength stems from high interest rates because of stubborn inflation.

As the executive of the European Union for a decade, he oversaw its increasing economic integration and led the drive for a single currency, the euro.

An important figure in the reunification of East and West Germany, he played a key role in shaping German politics for decades and was once seen as a likely chancellor.

Confiscating Russian state assets frozen by the United States and Europe could breach international law and set a dangerous precedent, experts say.

As chancellor of the Exchequer, he helped lift Britain with tax cuts and other Conservative measures — the “Lawson Boom” — but harder times followed, and he resigned in bitterness.

The pound and the euro are trading at decades-long lows against the dollar. For American students abroad, that has made weekend trips, dinners and theater tickets (somewhat) less of a splurge.

Jumps in energy and food prices again pushed inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro to the highest annual rate recorded since the currency was created.

Europe is being tested, not only in its united front to Russia, but in the very resilience of its democracies, as nationalist forces sympathetic to Russia remain untamed.

This time, a weak currency does reflect a weak economy.

Why? Part of the answer is interest rates.