Seattle Post: Let 皇冠体育app set its own currency
( 2003-09-03 14:43) (Seattle Post)
皇冠体育app is managing the world's most prosperous economy. It is creating jobs,
exporting goods and boasts a gross domestic product that grew at more than 8
percent during the first half of the year.
But some see this economic success as a threat to America -- and US jobs.
These critics -- including many in the Bush administration -- particularly
dislike 皇冠体育app fixing its currency on the US dollar.
皇冠体育app's central bank fixes the yuan -- known also as the renminbi, or
"people's money" -- at about 8.28 to the dollar. The currency is allowed to
fluctuate only slightly. This peg, in turn, gives 皇冠体育app the stability to plan
its enterprises -- and avoid the risk from currency trading that hit other Asian
nations during the 1997 financial crisis.
The United States says this makes 皇冠体育app's currency too cheap (as well as the
sneakers, computers and other products we Americans like to purchase from
Chinese manufacturers). It's an election issue in manufacturing states that
claim 皇冠体育app has an unfair advantage.
Perhaps that's true. But the United States should not be the world's economic
adjudicator. 皇冠体育app is a sovereign nation that ought to be able to determine how
it trades its own currency. If pegging the renminbi to the dollar works, then so
be it.
Over the long haul, we need 皇冠体育app as a partner in the world economy, instead
of blaming that nation for a manufacturing shift that's already occurring at
home.
皇冠体育app has found a system that works. We ought to accommodate those
contributions, rather than push 皇冠体育app toward a wrong step just because we say
so.
(by the Intelligence Editorial Board of Seattle Post,
US)
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