U.S. puts Japan back on currency manipulator watch list after 1 year

PolandIsAStateOfMind , 5 days ago

Coincidentally just after Japan dropped 1/5th of their dollar bond reserve, some 63 billion.

mlg , 5 days ago

Ah must be another thing like the FATF

A fake ass snake oil group used by Washington to push its agenda, and not actually cut off money laundering or terrorism funding.

queermunist , 6 days ago

This is such a stupid concept.

Every nation with currency sovereignty manipulates its currency. The Federal Reserve itself is constantly going on about the things it’s doing to change the value of the dollar and trying to address trade deficits! Yet if someone else does it it’s “unfair”

Also, how the fuck is Germany on the list? They’re on the Euro! They can’t even control their own currency! What manipulation?

This is literally just a list of countries that are doing well and America is mad about it.

mean_bean279 , 6 days ago

A country would meet all three if it had a trade surplus with the United States of at least $15 billion, a current account surplus of at least 3 percent of gross domestic product, and if it had engaged in persistent, one-sided intervention in foreign exchange markets.

Being on the list isn’t a bad thing. You only have to have two of the three things listed in order to be on the list and any of our major trading partners would automatically be on it. It’s simply a mechanism for the US government to have reports on other economies it does business with.

queermunist , 6 days ago

There are consequences for being on the list, though, so it’s not just an internal accounting term.

mean_bean279 , 6 days ago

Only if you hit all three points. Otherwise it’s a monitoring list. It’s just for keeping track of finances and better understanding economies of partners and why they’re larger traders to the US. It’s in the US’ best interest to understand a major trading partners economy and currency, and it helps us better prepare for future trade agreements.

queermunist , 6 days ago

Hypocrisy is always in the hypocrite’s best interest. It’s for keeping track of rivals. There are no real partners.

mean_bean279 , 6 days ago

In no realm does the US consider Japan, Germany, or Singapore a rival. China is the only “rival” in there. The other countries don’t have the actual quantity of people or land size to be an economic rival. At best they could have a higher standard of living based on PPP or GDP per capita, but not anything that would overtake the US. You’re trying to turn a simple evaluation tool that every government should be using on its trading partners into some maniacal weapon of economic doom. There are lots of partners in this world. Just like everyone else if you act like everyone is an enemy then all you ever see is targets.

queermunist , 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

Do you really think the US doesn’t view the world solely through the lens of rivalry? That’s the underlying logic of capitalism: there are only winners and losers. Cooperation and partnership are temporary arrangements of convenience, they can always change and lists like this are one of the ways the US determines who’s next.

That’s why they use such an inflammatory term like “manipulator” - it’s meant to intimidate.

It doesn’t matter if any of them present a legitimate threat, all that matters is they’re in the way.

HumanPenguin , 6 days ago

Every nation with currency sovereignty manipulates its currency.

Add to that. Citizens / voters blame politicians when a currency is low relative to others. While those same politicians claim responsibility for improvements.

Including US ones.