Time Again for the US Treasury Report – Semi-annual Much Ado About Nothing
I didn’t do a search, but I wonder how many times I’ve written this exact post on this blog. Gotta be at least six times now.
The US Treasury Department, every six months or so, comes out with a report that, among other things, calls out currency manipulators. Each time, labor and manufacturing groups, among others, complain loudly about China and demand that the administration does something about it.
In past years, it was also a good excuse for Senators Schumer and Graham to tout their punitive tariff bill for the cameras (like they need an excuse to get on TV!!!).
Anyway, here we go again:
U.S. labor and manufacturing groups urged President Barack Obama on Tuesday to live up to his campaign rhetoric and formally label China a currency manipulator in a Treasury Department report due out next week.
But Nicholas Lardy, a China economic policy watcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said he’d be “shocked” if Obama took that step now. (Reuters)
I think I’ll go with Nick Lardy on this one. Obama’s not going to take a hit on this in the wake of the tire safeguard case. Labor won that battle, they can live with this tiny defeat.
