Beyond Bretton Woods 2
Is there a better way to organise the world’s currencies?
WHEN the leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) countries meet in Seoul on November 11th and 12th, there will be plenty of backstage finger-pointing about the world's currency tensions. American officials blame China's refusal to allow the yuan to rise faster. The Chinese retort that the biggest source of distortion in the global economy is America's ultra-loose monetary policy—reinforced by the Federal Reserve's decision on November 3rd to restart “quantitative easing”, or printing money to buy government bonds (see article). Other emerging economies cry that they are innocent victims, as their currencies are forced up by foreign capital flooding into their markets and away from low yields elsewhere.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline "Beyond Bretton Woods 2"
Briefing November 6th 2010
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