The stock market gyrations are not the only strange thing going on in the market. The dollar, accustomed to having sand kicked in its face like a 98 pound weakling on the beach, is now the strongest currency in the world - by far. What's going on with that?

In the past 3 months, the dollar has soared, and clearly broken out of its multi-year slump. Just like when you travel abroad you have to buy local currency to use,  investors also need to buy local currencies to  purchase investments.  Over the past few years there has been a lot of investment overseas, and those currencies were in greater demand than ours.

Now, once again, everyone wants to own dollars so they can buy T-bills, CDs or just be out of what are recognized as weaker currencies. The US, despite all the political rhetoric to the contrary, is still considered the safest of the safe havens.

But there is more driving the dollar right now.

I had breakfast a year or two ago with Richard Russell, writer of the Dow Theory Letters for almost 50 years, and his lovely wife Faye. Richard pointed out that having debt is like a "short" on currency.

Shorting involves selling something you borrow, generally a stock, hoping to buy it back at a lower price to replace the borrowed stock and make a profit. This is measured by the difference in what you sold for and what you it bought back for. If the price goes up, you can lose - sometimes a lot, because, theoretically, the price can go up forever and you have to replace the stock regardless of how much you have to pay to get it.