The Australian dollar will come down, and come down hard, high-profile fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller is reported to have declared overnight. To which the nation will, as one, respond “if only”.

Druckenmiller’s logic might be questionable — the dollar has resisted commodity price falls for an extended period, to the collective chagrin of trade-exposed industries, and the claim that household debt:GDP is at dangerous levels is undermind by our post-GFC savings rate of 9-10%, which isn’t making life any easier for retailers. But manufacturers, miners and governments would all dearly love to see the Aussie fall and fall significantly, particularly given our current low rate of inflation means greater capacity to absorb the downside of a currency depreciation: higher import prices.

So far, the government and the RBA have resisted calls from across the ideological spectrum for intervention. And one of the most astute decisions made by Wayne Swan in recent months has been to resist portraying Australia as a victim of currency wars, noting major currencies like the US dollar and the euro are weak because of interest rate differentials and quantitative easing, which are designed to stimulate those economies — something that can only be in Australia’s long-run interests.

In fact, the Gillard government’s response to the high dollar has been one of the best aspects of economic management. Not merely has it ignored calls to intervene, it has rejected pressure from unions to increase protectionism in response. And while it has, disappointingly, increased levels of industry assistance, it has also used the high dollar to spur greater innovation and productivity in trade-exposed sectors. In short, Labor has said, we’ve got to cop it sweet and adjust to life with a safe haven currency.

But governments should learn the same lesson: making some hard decisions to reduce long-run spending to accommodate lower revenues over the medium-term in areas like corporate tax and capital gains tax. That may turn out to be unnecessary if the dollar, as per Druckenmiller, falls hard. But the benefits will be all the greater if industries and governments accept a strong currency is here to stay.