Wednesday, March 24, 2010

U.S. Exchange Rate Hegemony Should Come to Halt

Prof. Shi Jianxun, People's Daily China
The hubbub of calls for Renminbi (RMB) appreciation has been increasingly clamorous in the United States. Of late, some U.S. senators have jointly initiated a bill moved forward by Senator Charles Schumer aimed at stopping China from "manipulating" its currency. The bill urged the Obama government to go on pressurizing China and threaten to list it as a "currency manipulator".
Washington has turned more and more vocal on this issue, locking China and the U.S. in a wrangle over the value of the yuan, in an argument in which confrontational actions seem to be brewing. Taking an apparently tougher line, these U.S. senators have unveiled legislation that threatens heavy penalties, if Beijing refuses to act. The "Schumer Bill" would possibly penalize currency manipulation as an unfair subsidy and could trigger retaliatory actions.
However, the world's top "currency manipulator" is, as a matter of fact, really groundless since it exercises a US dollar hegemony, which has set the longest historical record and made the most substantial benefits by manipulating the exchange rate, and triggered a global financial crisis and economic crisis.
Only with a cold war mentality, hegemonic arrogance and prejudice in thought, a few U.S. politicians are telling whooping lies to shirk responsibilities by accusing other countries and shift their internal contradiction to cash in political votes.
Read more here

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