5 Contrarian Investment Ideas

As the U.S. government goes hat in hand to borrow money to help pay for its unprecedented deficits, the rest of the world -- also known as our creditors -- is understandably worried. The forecasted recovery in the U.S. economy looks to be tepid at best, but with short-term interest rates targeted at essentially zero, a massive bout of whiplash inflation seems inevitable.

That's the conventional thinking on the dollar anyway, which investors are dumping in droves. The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, is off 10% from its 52-week high set in early March.

Long term the dollar looks to have plenty of challenges, but short term it looks good to Brett D'Arcy, director of investment research at CBIZ Financial Solutions (CBZ), a Cleveland-based financial-services firm. "While we do believe in the threat of inflation domestically, which is not good for the dollar, we think the overriding theme is that the U.S. will come out of this global recession better and faster than the rest of the world," he says. "And there will come a time in the next six to nine months that the Fed will raise interest rates. Both of those are very dollar-strengthening."