La Guerra de las Monedas

China continues to manipulate the renminbi to the extent that it is now undervalued by at least 20 percent. Japan has resumed intervention on a massive scale to lower the yen. Switzerland recently spent more than $100 billion to keep its franc from rising. All these countries, and a number of others, already run large trade surpluses and hold huge reserves but nevertheless want to weaken their exchange rates to boost growth through exports.


Now some deficit countries, notably Brazil, feel compelled to emulate these interventions to defend their competitive positions, even though they too already hold large reserves. Virtually all economies, including the European Union and the United States are seeking to avoid stronger exchange rates. In short, the competitive undervaluation of China is infecting the entire global economy.
This exposes a glaring gap in today's international monetary system: the absence of effective discipline on surplus countries. All adjustment pressures fall on those with deficits—resulting in an inherent deflationary bias that is especially acute during global slowdowns. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up to stop the competitive devaluations that deepened the Great Depression, but it has never been given the tools to do so.

Este es el inicio de un editorial, We Can Fight Fire with Fire on the Renminbi de Fred Bergsten y que muestra de forma clara de qué se está hablando cuando se hace referencia a la guerra de las monedas en este momento que preocupa a todo el mundo y que se dicuete entre otras cosas en la reunión anual FMI-BM que se realiza en estos momentos.....

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Pero vale la pena leer este editorial de B. Eichengreen ,The world's central banks are at war. What does that mean for the rest of us?, en donde también explica cómo esta situación es una resultante de las políticas monetarias adoptadas por estos países...