America's Weak Dollar Policy Amounts to the Biggest Currency Manipulation in Human History

The US Dollar depreciated by 37% between 2002 and 2008 (data here), see graph above.

Tough talk from abroad, an editorial in the London Telegraph:

"Obama has called on China to adopt a more "market-oriented exchange rate." The US Treasury Department, meanwhile, has set a mid-April deadline to decide whether China truly is a "currency manipulator," warning that America could impose new levies on Chinese products if that's judged to be the case.

The president is playing with fire. For one thing, his country is being kept afloat by China's willingness to keep buying U.S. government debt. Obama really should tread carefully. At the same time, the US is now at risk of sparking what could be an all-out trade war.

The reality is that America's "weak dollar" policy – its long-standing practice of allowing its currency to depreciate in order to lower the value of its foreign debts – amounts to the biggest currency manipulation in human history. At the same time, the U.S. has, for years, shamefully stalled on various rulings passed by the World Trade Organisation that show America to be breaching global trade rules.

Chinese inflation is now at 2.7% – close to the official 3% target. Beijing will eventually allow the yuan to rise, but in its own time and in order to tackle inflation and not because of US pressure. America needs to act smarter and get its own economic house in order. Obama has decided instead to lash out at China in a desperate attempt to placate a U.S. electorate increasingly mindful of their president's failings."

MP: The U.S. has also stalled the free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, which were passed in 2007 and are now languishing into a fourth year.