Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Let Them Manipulate!

It might be a truism that roughly 40% of Americans identify themselves as conservative vs. 20% who identify themselves as liberal. This is probably a case where semantics trick our perceptions. Let's skip the misuse of two words (liberal and conservative) right now. Let's look at the grab bag called conservative.

First, social conservatism in the activist sense, is incompatible with fiscal conservatism. And there are countless schisms within the ranks of social conservatism. But let's put social conservatism on the shelf for the time being.

Among fiscal conservatives there are broad philosophical differences between free traders and protectionists. There is also a rift between strong dollar proponents vs. weak dollar proponents. I am a strong dollar proponent.

When I hear Donald Trump or Lou Dobbs or Greta Van Sustern bemoan the Chinese "manipulating" their currency. By manipulation they mean devaluing. This is looking Secretariat in the mouth. The Chinese government has decided to shaft their own people so that sneakers formerly priced at $16 can be sold for $9. China citizens lose. Consumers all over the world win.

A weak currency might benefit a few niches, a few select special interests, but a strong currency benefits every consumer and every payee. So when the Manipulation Mob raise their pitch forks to the heavens, they cheer on the devaluing of the dollar (at least against the yuan.) If they cannot grasp the advantages of a strong dollar then we have a case of "with friends like these..."

I say, "Let Them Manipulate!"

1 comment:

Hoosierman said...

China is just a scapegoat for everything we do wrong but they won't be around forever. By 2015 it will have more older than younger workers. It's one child policy has skewed the gender mix so badly that it will soon have trouble maintaing its population. They will get old before they get rich but waiting in the wings are Vietnam, Brazil and who knows who else. Yes we need a strong dollar; King dollar as Larry Kudlow calls it.