Since the US Treasury issued its most recent report, in which it again declined to call out China as a currency manipulator, lots of ink has been spilled in editorial pages around the globe, including Paul Krugman’s New York Times column last week.

Most of the stuff from the US has been negative, complaining about China’s currency policy for a variety of reasons. I certainly don’t dispute the facts, but I also see a lot of finger pointing going on, which is ugly and counterproductive to good discussions of policy.

So I found this to be somewhat of a fresh take on the issue (from Seeking Alpha):

What I find interesting is that had China instead *devalued* their currency upwards of 20% like South Korea, Thailand, or Malaysia (justifiable given their own meltdown in exports), Congress would have gone bonkers. Unfortunately, instead of the focus on currency manipulation by other countries, or China spending its own reserves to stimulate its economy amid a weakening Asia, the focus is placed on China’s dollar peg. Can anyone spell ’scapegoat’?

Interesting that because of China’s large footprint globally these days, and the role it plays with the global imbalance problem, you rarely see something written that compares its actions to other countries.

Maybe China could do more on the currency front, but perhaps it can also be given credit once in a while for what it has done right (since 1998, I would add).