January 17, 2018
The NYT printed a Reuters article which included the bizarre assertion that the United States would be in some way threatened if China stopped buying US government bonds. The assertion is bizarre because for years many people (included me) complained that China was deliberately keeping down the value of its currency against the dollar in order to support its exports.
Depressing the value of the Chinese currency resulted in the country building up a huge trade surplus with the United States. This led to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, largely in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The way China kept down the value of its currency was by buying up government bonds with the dollars it acquired instead of just selling them in the open market. If China now decides to sell these bonds, it should mean that its currency will rise, thereby reducing the US trade deficit. It’s hard to see what the problem is here.
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