Monday’s Big Idea
Global Currency
One of the most oft-repeats excuses for America's competitiveness slump has been that China is not playing by the same rules, and is a "currency manipulator." In other words, China was artificially depreciating the value of its currency in order to keep the price of exports cheap.
This may have been the case a few years ago, but it is certainly not the truth today.
"China has allowed the Yuan to appreciate in value against the dollar and Euro and other major currencies," Big Think chief economist Daniel Altman says, "and now there are very few analysts who would say that it's artificially depressed."
This is a sign that Chinese consumers have a lot more buying power, and "the Chinese Yuan could become a reserve currency around the world.
