Currency Wars - Perception and Reality. EICHENGREEN, Barry. Global financial institute, may 2013....
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Currency Wars: Perception and Reality May 2013
Prof. Barry Eichengreen
2 Author
Global Financial Institute
Prof. Barry Eichengreen George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science Department of Economics University of California, Berkeley Email:
[email protected] Web Page: Click here Barry Eichengreen is the George C. Pardee and
fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the
Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and
Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto) and the Insti-
Professor of Political Science at the University
tute for Advanced Study (Berlin). He is a regu-
of California, Berkeley, where he has taught
lar monthly columnist for Project Syndicate.
since 1987. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cam-
Professor Eichengreen was awarded the Eco-
bridge, Massachusetts) and Research Fellow of
nomic
the Centre for Economic Policy Research (Lon-
Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching in
don, England). In 1997-98 he was Senior Policy
2002 and the University of California at Berke-
Advisor at the International Monetary Fund. He
ley
is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts
Teaching Award in 2004. He is the recipient
and Sciences (class of 1997).
of a doctor honoris causa from the American
History
Social
Association’s
Science
Division’s
Jonathan
R.T.
Distinguished
University in Paris, and the 2010 recipient of Professor Eichengreen is the convener of the
the Schumpeter Prize from the International
Bellagio Group of academics and economic
Schumpeter
officials and chair of the Academic Advisory
of Foreign Policy Magazine ‘s 100 Leading
Committee of the Peterson Institute of Inter-
Global Thinkers in 2011. He is Immediate Past
national Economics. He has held Guggenheim
President of the Economic History Associa-
and Fulbright Fellowships and has been a
tion (2010-11 academic year).
Society.
He
was
named
one
3 Table of contents
Global Financial Institute
Table of contents
Introduction............................................................................ 04
1.
History Lessons...................................................................... 06
2.
Reasoning by Analogy........................................................ 08
3.
The Fog of War....................................................................... 11
4. References............................................................................... 12
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4 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
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Currency Wars: Perception and Reality Prof. Barry Eichengreen May 2013
Introduction The problem of “currency wars” emerged as both a
toward products produced domestically at the expense
major concern and a source of confusion in early 2013.
of their neighbours – a process that is ultimately futile
This once obscure term, first uttered by Brazilian Finance
insofar as it provokes retaliation.
Minister Guido Mantega in response to the initial round
that in the case of a currency war, it is currency policy
of quantitative easing in the United States, came into
rather than trade policy that is being deployed.
widespread use following the formation of a new Japa-
is, however, the analytical problem that while trade
nese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in
warfare destroys trade, creating a deadweight loss, off-
late 2012.
Mr. Abe indicated his intention of pursuing
setting devaluations simply return bilateral exchange
more aggressively reflationary monetary and exchange
rates to their initial levels with no enduring relative price
rate policies. This caused the yen to fall by 16% against
effects.
the dollar and 19% against the euro between the end of
other words.
The only difference is There
It is not clear that the analogy holds water, in
September, when it became likely that Mr. Abe would take power, and mid-February 2013, when his appoint-
Similarly, there is the implication that a currency war
ment of a new Bank of Japan governor was imminent.
can be said to have broken out when one or more
Both the term and the concerns to which it referred
countries
therefore migrated to the front pages of the financial
tive currency depreciation.
press.
engages
in
beggar-thy-neighbour
competi-
But it is not clear in this
A host of additional policymakers – some from
case whether all policies that result in currency or
emerging markets, such as Alexei Ulyukyev, first deputy
exchange-rate depreciation are necessarily competitive
chairman at the Russian Central Bank, and Bahk Jae-
or beggar-thy-neighbour.
wan, South Korea’s finance minister, and others from
its exchange rate depreciate, is it necessarily engaged
advanced
in a currency war?
countries,
like
Bundesbank
President
Jens
Just because a country sees
Weidmann – warned of the adverse consequences of currency manipulation, Mr. Weidmann referring omi-
Probably the most widely accepted definition of what
nously to an undesirable “politicisation of exchange
constitutes a currency war is “what countries did in the
rates.”
1930s.”
1
The currency-war problem then became a key
Starting in 1931, one country after another
topic at the meetings of the Group of Seven and Group
depreciated
its
currency.
Since
currencies
were
of Twenty this February, where it was the subject of a
pegged to gold rather than to one another, countries
carefully crafted set of communiques.2
depreciated by abandoning their pre-existing gold parities and allowing the domestic currency price of gold
But carefully crafted is not the same as clearly under-
to rise. This consequently had the effect of also raising
stood.
the domestic currency price of foreign currencies still
The confusion stems from the fact that there is
no widely accepted definition of a currency war.
The
pegged to gold at prevailing parities.3
term is not found in the leading textbooks of economics. There is the implication that a currency war is to be
As the story is conventionally told, this enhanced the
understood by analogy with the concept of a trade war,
competitiveness of countries depreciating their curren-
in which countries use trade policy to shift spending
cies but worsened that of the remaining gold-standard
uoted in Randow and Schneeweiss (2013). Q See Group of Seven (2013) and Group of Twenty (2013). 3 The gold parity referred to the weight of gold of specified purity in the national monetary unit as specified by law or statute of a country said to be on the gold standard. 1 2
5 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
countries.
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This saddled the latter with overly strong
this was not well understood at the time.
As a result,
exchange rates, creating pressure for them to respond
the point is not understood today by those advancing
tit for tat, as they ultimately did. After five years of “com-
the conventional story.
petitive devaluations,” exchange rates had returned to levels very close to those prevailing in early 1931.
No
In
part,
contemporary
misunderstanding
arose
from
country succeeded in engineering a sustained improve-
the fact that interwar governments did a poor job of
ment in competitiveness or, it is argued, achieved
communicating their intentions.
faster economic growth.
the fact that they did a poor job of implementing their
other
adverse
But there were a variety of
consequences
ranging
from
height-
In part it arose from
policies; they could have done much more to accentu-
ened exchange rate uncertainty that disrupted trade
ate the positive-sum aspects.
and production to the imposition of trade barriers and
the fact that policymakers continued to view their cur-
exchange controls by countries with overvalued curren-
rent situation through the lens of past problems, failing
cies and weakened balances of payments.
to acknowledge that circumstances and therefore the
4
It is not an
exaggeration to say that popular accounts blame the
And in part it arose from
appropriate policies had changed.
currency wars of the 1930s for aggravating the political tensions that made it more difficult for countries to col-
The same factors are again present today, once more distort-
laborate in averting the military and diplomatic conflicts
ing the debate over currency policies. Policymakers have
that led ultimately to World War II.5
done a poor job communicating their intentions. They could have done more to accentuate positive-sum aspects of their
In fact, this conventional narrative is oversimplified and
actions. And, along with market participants, they have had a
misleading in important respects.
This in turn means
tendency to view policies through the distorting lens of past
that today’s debate over currency wars, because it is
problems rather than current circumstances. Understanding
heavily informed by that narrative, is itself oversimpli-
these shortcomings of the present debate and correcting the
fied and misleading.
resulting misapprehensions would go a long way toward solv-
The modern literature empha-
sises that the policy changes associated with currency
ing the currency war problem.
depreciation in the 1930s were not actually zero sum. To the contrary, those policy changes left all countries better off relative to the status quo ante, in which policy did not change and exchange rates did not move.
But
These negative side effects were highlighted by Ragnar Nurkse (1944) in his influential contemporary account, which helped to clear the way for the Bretton Woods System of pegged-but-adjustable exchange rates. A recent, somewhat revisionist treatment is Eichengreen and Irwin (2010). 5 See for example Kennedy (1999). 4
6 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
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1. History Lessons The background to the currency and exchange rate
cut interest rates to encourage borrowing and spend-
problems of the 1930s was, of course, the depression
ing.
and deflation that started in 1929. In turn, that depres-
banking system threatened to fatally weaken the cur-
sion and deflation must be understood in the context of
rency.
the gold standard, the monetary regime providing the
ited from the 1920s, that central banks would be pres-
structure for global monetary and financial affairs.6
sured to monetise public debts.
Injecting liquidity in order to support a distressed Running budget deficits rekindled fears, inherGovernments were
therefore forced to cut public spending and raise taxes The 1920s monetary regime was a gold-exchange stan-
in order to preserve confidence in their exchange rate
dard rather than a pure gold standard.
commitments.
and
governments
operated
under
Central banks
statutes
obligat-
ing them to back their monetary liabilities with gold
It might be thought that these policies of austerity, pur-
and convertible foreign exchange.7
sued in the face of depression and deflation, could not
Other than this
provision for holding reserves in the form of foreign
be sustained indefinitely.
exchange, the regime had many of the features of a text-
ain was the first major country to abandon them and
book gold standard.
depreciate its currency.
unrestricted.
International financial flows were
Indeed, they could not.
Brit-
It had a Labour government
With the capital account of the balance
that could not agree on budgetary economies and high
of payments open, domestic interest rates could not
unemployment that rendered the central bank reluctant
deviate significantly from those in the rest of the world.
to raise interest rates further in order to stem capital
If domestic policymakers sought to depress rates fur-
flight.11
ther, capital would migrate to foreign financial markets
1931, and the pound quickly fell from $4.86 to a low of
where they were higher, causing the central bank to
$3.40, from which it recovered modestly before stabi-
lose gold and foreign exchange reserves, and threaten-
lising.
ing the maintenance of gold convertibility.
members of the Commonwealth and Empire and British
standard open-economy “trilemma.”8
This is the
With exchange
It suspended gold convertibility in September
Some two dozen other economies, principally
trading partners, quickly followed suit.
The next shoe
rates pegged and capital markets open, central banks
to drop was Japan, whose finance minister Korkiyo
had limited monetary policy room for manoeuvre.
Takahashi
implemented
an
aggressively
expansion-
ary monetary policy that pushed down the yen startThe gold-exchange standard had been put back in place
ing in December.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in the 1920s after roughly a decade of suspension, dur-
embargoed gold exports on March 5th, 1933, his first
ing which a number of current and former belligerents
full day in office.
had suffered high inflation.
He made that embargo permanent
That experience in turn 48
in April and actively pushed up the dollar price of gold
shaped their expectations of risks and outcomes in the
(pushed down the dollar exchange rate) from October.
event that gold convertibility was again 32 suspended.
A number of U.S. trade partners, principally in Latin
9
America, followed the dollar down.
In January 1934,
As it happened, deflation rather than inflation turned
when the dollar was again stabilised against gold, the
out to be the immediate danger.10
sterling/dollar exchange rate was back to roughly the
When it developed
after 1929, central banks and governments had little freedom of action.
level prevailing before September 1931.
As long as they remained on the
gold standard, they could not unilaterally take steps
These efforts by Britain, the U.S., and Japan to depre-
to stem the fall in prices.
ciate sterling, the dollar, and the yen made life more
They could not unilaterally
As I argued in Eichengreen (1992), on which the remainder of this section draws. Typically at ratios of 33 to 40 per cent. 8 See Obstfeld, Shambaugh and Taylor (205). 9 The hyperinflations in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland being extreme cases in point. 10 Describing the origins of the global deflation would take us too far afield; in this, see Bernanke (1995) and Eichengreen (2004). 11 That Labour government was succeeded by a National government which agreed on budgetary economies in August, but by this time it was too late. 6 7
7 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
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difficult for countries still on the gold standard.
(That
Takahashi
supplemented
his
reflationary
monetary
these are the same three countries currently under
policy with an increase in public spending and instruc-
attack for being engaged in currency war is presum-
tions that the Bank of Japan purchase the resulting
ably a coincidence.)
increase in the public debt.
Having lost international competi-
In the U.S., FDR used his
tiveness, these so-called gold-bloc countries saw their
“bombshell message” to the World Economic Confer-
balances of payments accounts weaken and gold flow
ence of June-July 1933 to signal that he was unwilling
out of their central banks.
to restore the gold standard.
Forced to raise interest rates
He was not prepared to
to defend the reserve position rather than cutting them
privilege exchange rate stability (what he referred to in
to support the economy, their depressions deepened.
that message as “the old fetishes of international bank-
The result was not an equilibrium in either the eco-
ers”).
nomic or political sense.
The bombshell message may have made interna-
Economically, the condition
tional cooperation on trade policy, security policy, and
of domestic financial institutions continued to worsen.
other matters more difficult, but it was a strong signal
Politically, opposition welled up against policies of aus-
of a durable change in the monetary regime.
terity.
The remaining members of the gold bloc pro-
gressively fell by the wayside.
Czechoslovakia and Italy
These new policies had other important effects apart
devalued in 1934, Belgium in 1935, Poland, France, the
from their impact on exchange rates.
Netherlands, and Switzerland in 1936, returning their
est rates encouraged interest-rate sensitive forms of
exchange rates to roughly the same levels against the
spending, in the U.K. for example, where the literature
dollar and sterling that prevailed before 1931. These
refers to the “housing boom” of the 1930s.12
competitive devaluations gave rise to a good deal of
upward pressure on asset prices which, other things
damaging exchange rate and financial volatility, but at
equal, stimulated investment spending.
the end of the day, it is said, they changed nothing.
deflation, they stemmed the rise in debt burdens and squeeze on profits.
Such is the conventional narrative.
The modern litera-
Lower inter-
They put By halting
By creating expectations of higher
future prices, they encouraged households to shift
ture on exchange rate policy in the 1930s, beginning
consumption from the future to the present.
with Eichengreen and Sachs (1985), disputes this view
ing central banks more freedom of action, they allowed
that the exchange rate policies of the 1930s were with-
them to intervene as lenders of last resort to limit bank
out positive effect.
distress.13
While currency depreciation did
By giv-
And insofar as the policies had these stabi-
switch demand toward domestic goods and away from
lising effects on the initiating country, they encouraged
their foreign substitutes, this was not its exclusive or
residents to spend more on foreign as well as domestic
even its principal impact.
goods.
Rather, abandoning the com-
Currency devaluation by an individual country
mitment to peg the exchange rate allowed countries
may have had negative spillovers on its neighbours via
to replace the deflationary measures of the preceding
the exchange rate channel, but it had positive spillovers
period with reflationary monetary policies.
via these interest rate, asset price, and expectations
Going off
the gold standard was a credible way of signaling this
channels.
commitment to prioritise price stability over exchange
dominated when a single policy was taken in isolation,
Even if the negative exchange rate spillovers
rate stability.
once the entire round of exchange rate changes was complete those negative spillovers were gone and only
Thus, six months after abandoning the gold standard,
the positive interest rate, asset price, and expectation
the Bank of England began cutting interest rates; by
effects remained.
July 1932 these had reached the historically low level of 2%, inaugurating a new era of “cheap money.”
The
These conclusions are, of course, inconsistent with the
Swedish government and Riksbank replaced the gold
presumption that monetary policy was impotent in the
standard with an explicit price level target.
1930s because interest rates were at the zero lower
12 13
In Japan,
See Middleton (2010) for references. The cross-country evidence can be found in Grossman (1994).
8 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
bound.14
Global Financial Institute
Cross-country comparisons, calibration exer-
depreciation tended to dominate the positive spillovers
cises, and national case studies, all using data from the
transmitted through now lower interest rates and infla-
1930s, have combined to overturn this presumption.
tionary expectations.
These studies highlight that interest rates were still
to more clearly explain their intentions – which were
significantly above zero prior to the change in policy
not to beggar their neighbours but to stabilize their own
regime; the change therefore gave central banks fur-
prices, economies, and financial systems – caused their
ther room to cut. They remind us that even when nomi-
motives to be widely misunderstood.
15
And the failure of policymakers
nal interest rates are near zero, central banks can still affect the real interest rates on which allocation deci-
Thus, to the extent that there was a currency problem
sions depend through the expectations channel – by
in the 1930s, it stemmed not from the decision of coun-
using forward guidance and asset purchases to create
tries abandoning the gold standard to reflate, but from
expectations of inflation rather than deflation.
the failure of the countries of the gold bloc to do like-
FDR’s
gold purchases and Takahashi’s government bond pur-
wise.
chases can be thought of as analogous to quantitative
lier experience with high inflation in France, Belgium,
That failure was rooted, as noted above, in ear-
easing, while the Bank of England’s commitment to
Poland, and the Central European countries that now
keep interest rates low and the Riksbank’s commitment
clung to the gold standard with the help of exchange
to target the price level can be thought of as forward
control.16
guidance.
ued to perceive current economic and financial circum-
Policymakers and their constituents contin-
stances through the lens of past problems, with proModern studies thus conclude that countries abandon-
foundly negative consequences.
ing the gold standard and allowing their currencies to depreciate recovered most quickly from the 1930s
The problem in the 1930s, then, was not too much cur-
depression.
rency warfare, but too little.
ous.
Recovery was, however, less than vigor-
Countries abandoning the gold standard and
depreciating their currencies were reluctant to implement aggressively reflationary policies.
In Britain, for
example, the Bank of England, concerned that the sterling exchange rate could collapse in the absence of its
2. Reasoning by Analogy
golden anchor, took three full quarters to convince itself
Many of these points have analogues in the current
that cheap money was safe and to cut interest rates to
debate.
2%.
First, there is the view, implicit in the critiques
Even then it remained reluctant to cut them fur-
of emerging market policymakers, that the unconven-
ther. FDR, although depreciating the dollar by 50%, put
tional monetary policies of advanced-country central
the U.S. back on the gold standard at the now higher
banks are ineffectual.
gold price in January 1934, contrary to the advice of
lost its potency now that interest rates are at the zero
John Maynard Keynes and others.
lower bound, just as it allegedly lost its potency in the
In the subsequent
period, the Treasury repeatedly sterilised gold inflows,
1930s.
limiting the growth of money and credit.
left.
Central banks
Monetary policy, they allege, has
Only the negative side-effects, it follows, are
and governments could not free themselves of the specter of the 1920s inflations and thus were reluctant
While there is less than full consensus on the efficacy
to make full use of their newfound monetary room for
of unconventional monetary policies at the zero lower
manoeuvre.
bound, a growing body of literature studying different episodes suggests that such policies are not entirely
As a result, the beggar-thy-neighbour effect of currency
without effect.
Oda and Ueda (2005) and Ugai (2006)
A presumption that is popularly cited as explaining Keynes’s “discovery” of the importance of using activist fiscal policy in a liquidity trap. 15 See, respectively, Bernanke and James (1991), Eggertsson (2008), and Romer (1992) for examples. 16 In the cases of Switzerland and the Netherlands, an additional motive was the desire not to jeopardise the position of Zurich and Amsterdam as international financial centres and the power of the banking lobby. 14
9 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
Global Financial Institute
analyse the impact of the Bank of Japan’s experience
the extent that central banks fail to complement open
with quantitative easing between 2001 and 2006 and
mouth operations pushing down the real exchange rate
conclude in favor of small but noticeable impacts on
with open market operations and other asset purchases
medium- and long-term interest rates.
Gagnon, Raskin,
pushing down real interest rates, their neighbours will
Remarche, and Sack (2011) report evidence, derived
have correspondingly more reason to complain about
using a variety of methodological approaches, of posi-
the spillover effects on output and employment in other
tive effects of quantitative easing in the United States.
countries.
Krishnamurthy
and Vissing-Jorgensen
(2010)
look
at
low frequency variations in the supply of long-term
But the exchange rate channel can also be important
Treasury bonds like those that would follow from quan-
for signaling the policy authorities’ commitment to
titative easing and identify effects on interest rates on
do what it takes to hit their inflation target.
other relatively safe assets.
Krishnamurthy and Vissing-
(2003) refers to the combination of a price-level target
Jorgensen (2011), disaggregating further, find evidence
path, a zero interest rate commitment and, importantly,
of a signaling channel, an expected inflation channel,
currency depreciation and a commitment to maintain-
and a demand-for-long-term-safe-assets channel trans-
ing a level for the exchange rate as the “foolproof way”
mitting effects of both the first and second rounds of
of ending deflation. Insofar as ending the deflation and
quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve.
Svensson
Looking
avoiding the extended period of economic stagnation to
back at Operation Twist in the 1960s, Swanson (2011)
which it can give rise is good not just for the initiating
finds a small but significant impact on long-term inter-
country but also its trade and financial partners, posi-
est rates operating through the portfolio rebalancing
tive spillovers on other countries from depreciation of
channel.
its exchange rate may still dominate.
Joyce, Lasaosa, Stevens, and Tong (2010)
similarly find evidence of the operation of the portfolio rebalancing channel in the response of gilt prices
The studies referred to earlier in this section suggest
to large-scale asset purchases by the Bank of Eng-
that
land starting in March 2009.
through the portfolio rebalancing channel that leads
In a companion paper,
unconventional
monetary
policies
also
operate
Kapetanios, Mumtaz, Stevens, and Theodoridis (2010)
to changes in the term structure of interest rates.
IMF
conclude that those Bank of England purchases had an
(2011) finds that portfolio-rebalancing-related interest-
effect on the level of real GDP of around 1 ½ % and
rate effects dominated the other negative cross-border
raised the annual rate of CPI inflation by about 1 ¼ per-
spillover effects of QE1 and QE2 – in other words, that
centage points at its peak.
Different studies consider
the spillover impact on foreign output was positive on
different episodes and arrive at different point esti-
balance, the complaints of emerging market policymak-
mates, but as a group they are inconsistent with the
ers notwithstanding.
view that unconventional monetary policies are without effect.
This casts doubt on the assertion by some
Third, there are complaints about other negative side
observers based in emerging markets that such policies
effects of unconventional monetary policies.
should simply be abandoned.
is that quantitative easing is encouraging renewed
The worry
financial excesses in advanced countries and emergSecond, there is the view that unconventional monetary
ing markets alike.
policies operate only by pushing down currencies, with
Equity markets in the United States are becoming richly
beggar-thy-neighbour
coun-
valued as investors facing near-zero interest rates on
To be sure, the exchange rate channel can be
safe assets stretch for yield by purchasing riskier instru-
tries.
consequences
for
other
Risks are being allowed to build up.
important for switching expenditure toward domestic
ments.
The natural process of deleveraging by the
goods.
Insofar as this channel dominates, the effect
household and financial sectors needed to produce a
will be to beggar thy neighbour. Just as in the 1930s, to
safer and more stable economy is being frustrated, the
10 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
Global Financial Institute
implication follows.
countries is not to jawbone the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan to abandon quantitative easing, which
This
view
has
an
analogue
in
response to the Great Depression.17
the “liquidationist”
would make for slower global and even possibly slower
U.S. policymak-
emerging-market growth, but to tighten their own
ers inside and outside the Fed worried that monetary
supervision and regulation of financial markets.
accommodation would cause the development of an
the extent that conventional regulatory instruments are
even larger Wall Street boom and bubble, leading sub-
not up to the task, emerging market policy makers can
sequently to an even larger crash.
Herbert Hoover’s
resort to capital inflow taxes and controls as
famously
line of defence against financial excesses resulting from
Treasury that
Secretary
restraint
was
Andrew
Mellon
necessary
to
teach
argued
speculators
And to
a second
foreign policies.20
a lesson and “purge the rottenness out of the system.”18
Similar views were advanced by Austrian and
Similarly, to the extent that low interest rates in the
other Continental European economists from Hayek to
advanced
Schumpeter.
emerging markets that fan inflation, result in currency
countries
encourage
capital
inflows
into
overvaluation, and create worries of overheating, the The modern literature on the Great Depression and on
first-best response is not for officials there to pressure
financial crises generally acknowledges that activism
advanced country central banks to abandon their low
has risks but suggests that inaction in the face of cri-
interest rate policies but to adjust their own policies
sis also has a downside.
appropriately.
And to the extent that pol-
The first-best response is for emerging
icy activism in response to crisis encourages financial
markets to tighten fiscal policy.
Tightening fiscal policy
excesses, these are best addressed by tightening super-
puts downward pressure on domestic spending.
vision and regulation of financial markets, not by pre-
downward pressure on asset valuations.
mature abandonment of supportive monetary policies.
inflation, other things equal.
Some recent studies have questioned this “separation
rates and, therefore, smaller capital inflows and less
principle” – they have questioned whether there exists
pressure for real exchange rate appreciation.
an adequate array of monetary and regulatory instru-
ing sovereign debt burden, it puts the economy in a
ments, so that monetary policy can be assigned to infla-
stronger position going forward.
It puts
It means less
It means lower interest By reduc-
tion and growth while regulation is assigned to financial stability.19
Maybe not, but if not the call should be for
The objection here is that political constraints make
policymakers to develop a wider array of instruments,
it difficult to adjust fiscal policy, which is even more
not for central banks and governments to abandon the
politicised than monetary policy.
pursuit of all other valid goals in the interest of financial
the call should be to make it easier to implement opti-
stability.
mal adjustments of fiscal policy in emerging markets
Maybe so, but then
by strengthening automatic stabilisers or delegating The same goes for the complaint that unconventional
aspects of fiscal policy to an independent fiscal council,
monetary policies in the advanced countries are feed-
not to insist that advanced country central banks aban-
ing financial excesses in emerging markets.
don the pursuit of price stability and recovery.
The worry
itself is not without foundation: As Chen, Filardo, He and Zhu (2011) show, quantitative easing in the United
The European Central Bank, spokesmen for which have
States has had a strong impact on credit growth,
complained about how the policies of other central
asset prices, and capital inflows in emerging markets.
banks have produced an uncomfortably strong euro
But the first-best response for policymakers in those
exchange rate, is in a different position.
See DeLong (1990). As quoted in Hoover (1952). 19 See Committee on International Economic Policy and Reform (2011). 20 This is the justification of capital inflow restrictions as a second-best form of financial regulation first developed, if I am correct, in Eichengreen and Mussa (1998). 17 18
In contrast to
11 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
Global Financial Institute
emerging markets, spokesmen for which have similarly
but that it would only take additional steps to foster
complained that their exchange rates are uncomfort-
expectations of higher prices, lower real interest rates,
ably strong, the Eurozone does not currently suffer from
and more spending 12 or more months in the future,
excessive inflation, frothy asset markets, or risk of eco-
that statement further heightened fears abroad that the
nomic overheating – to the contrary.
new strategy was exchange-rate-centered and beggar
Eurozone inflation
fell to 2% in January in line with the ECB’s target, while
thy neighbour.
core inflation at 1.2% is running below that. The fourth quarter of 2012 saw Eurozone GDP shrink by 0.6%.
It may be that the essence of Japan’s new monetary policy strategy is the higher inflation target of 2% and
The standard policy prescription for a central bank
that the Bank of Japan will make a concerted effort to
engaged in flexible inflation targeting and worried by
achieve it, creating expectations of a higher future price
an overly strong exchange rate would be to join the cur-
level and encouraging additional spending by Japanese
rency wars.
consumers – something that would be more likely to
In the event, the ECB is not a conventional
inflation-targeting central bank.
It has a mandate to
have positive spillovers for other countries.
If so, this
hold inflation at or below its target of 2% but not to pur-
fact needs to be conveyed more clearly to avoid fanning
sue other goals.
fears of currency war.
The European public, whose approval
lends the ECB’s policies political legitimacy, continues to worry about inflation, which was yesterday’s problem but is less obviously today’s or even tomorrow’s. The analogy with the deflationary 1930s – when central banks were haunted by the spectre of inflation in an earlier decade, in turn feeding their reluctance to take more aggressive monetary action – is direct.
How the
3. The Fog of War “Currency war” is now a standard trope in journalis-
ECB squares this circle will have implications not just
tic accounts of monetary policy.
But what exactly
for the global currency wars, but for the future of the
constitutes “currency warfare” remains unclear.
Eurozone itself.
every economic policy that is associated with a weaker
Not
exchange rate is undesirable, and not every domestic A final analogy with the 1930s is the failure of policy
policy associated with a weaker exchange rate nec-
makers in countries following unconventional monetary
essarily redounds to the disfavor of other countries.
policies to adequately communicate their goals and
Officials warning of currency wars would do better to
strategies.
distinguish positive from negative effects of the foreign
In late December, Japan’s incoming prime
minister made a series of comments about the desir-
monetary policies of which they complain.
ability of resisting a strong yen that were interpreted
do well to consider the alternatives.
in terms of the desirability of a weaker yen exchange
markets really be better off if advanced countries at
rate.
risk of deflation and recession abandoned their uncon-
By focusing on the exchange rate rather than
They would
Would emerging
on measures to push up the price level, reduce inter-
ventional policies?
est rates, and encourage spending, those comments
could spend less time complaining about advanced
fanned fears that the strategy was intentionally beggar
country policies and more time identifying and imple-
thy neighbour.
menting an appropriate policy response.
In its first policy statement for 2013,
Policymakers in emerging markets
Policymakers
the Bank of Japan then signaled its responsiveness to
in advanced countries, for their part, need to do a better
the new government’s desires, but announced that it
job of communicating the intent of their policies.
would consider further ramping up its programme of
then are we likely to see our way through the fog of war.
asset purchases only in 2014.
By creating expectations
that it might acquiesce to a weaker yen exchange rate
Only
12 Currency Wars: Perception and Reality
Global Financial Institute
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