Dr. Shelton Remains Outspoken: She Should Have Known Better —David Glassner

David Glassner lays the smackdown on Fed-goldbug Judy Shelton for failing to understand the basics of currency manipulation when they have been explained to her.

Of course, President Trump has even less of an idea than his appointee, but in fairness he is not a PhD economist working in the field that expected to know about this matter in great detail.

Uneasy Money
Dr. Shelton Remains Outspoken: She Should Have Known Better
David Glasner | Economist at the Federal Trade Commission

Reuters — Trump says Russia, China playing 'currency devaluation game'

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Russia and China on Monday of devaluing their currencies while the United States raises interest rates....

Reuters
Trump says Russia, China playing 'currency devaluation game'

Staff

See also

Moscow considers U.S. sanctions a form of unfair competition and any response will be in line with Russia’s interests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday....

Kremlin says U.S. sanctions amount to asset grab

Peter J. Brown — China has cost US 3.4 million jobs, says think tank

Economic Policy Institute* says the US-China trade relationship needs fundamental change to stop 'unfair trade and illegal currency manipulation'.

Asia Times
China has cost US 3.4 million jobs, says think tank

Peter J. Brown

* Wikipedia:

The EPI describes itself as a non-partisan think tank that "seeks to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions".[2] It is affiliated with the labor movement,[3] and is usually described as presenting a liberal[4] viewpoint on public policy issues. 

Lara Merling — Germany Does Have Unfair Trade Advantages

While China is commonly accused of currency manipulation to provide cheap exports, the IMF has recently decided the renminbi (RMB) is no longer undervalued and added it in its reserve currency basket, along with other major currencies. However, an IMF analysis of Germany’s currency found “an undervaluation of 5-15 percent” for the Euro in the case of Germany. Thus for Germany, the Euro has a significantly lower value than a solely German currency would have....

The Minskys
Germany Does Have Unfair Trade Advantages
Lara Merling

Debate: Can China Survive Trump? — Michael Pettis and Tom Orlick

Orlik: President-elect Donald Trump's talk of tariffs and the rise of populist nationalism evident in the Brexit vote are warning signs of a coming storm. At this point, though, there's no way of knowing how severe the storm will be. The history of U.S.-China relations shows tough talk on the campaign trail rarely translates into action in office.
Trump has already backed away from other pledges. It's possible tariffs won't materialize. Indeed, a fiscal stimulus that puts more money into American shoppers' pockets could actually boost demand for China's exports. In Europe, anger is focused more on immigrants than trade. Absent sweeping tariffs, our forecast is for exports to grow about 5 percent in 2017, reversing the contraction in 2016.

Pettis: You may be right, Tom, but the global economy continues to be distorted by huge trade imbalances. The worst offender is Germany, whose record-breaking surpluses just keep growing. Meanwhile, Japan is running large surpluses again after five years of deficits. These and other large surpluses are driven not by rising productivity, but rather by structurally weak domestic demand, and in most cases, this weak demand isn't being addressed except by being exported. China is one of the few surplus countries that has actually improved domestic demand, driving its current account surplus down from 10.1 percent of GDP in 2007 to under 3 percent today. In absolute terms, however, China's surplus is barely 10 percent below its previous peak.

The problem is not China as a US competitor, but rather US "partners" Germany and Japan.

Seeking Alpha
Debate: Can China Survive Trump?

Michael Pettis and Tom Orlick

Ari Andricopoulos — On Currency Devaluation (Deliberate and Otherwise)

It is an unstated central bank policy in many parts of the world to reduce the value of their currency to below its fair value. The reason for doing so is 'competitiveness'. A weaker currency means lower global prices for your goods and hence increases your exports, while at the same time reducing imports. Since a fundamental equation of economics says that GDP = C+I+G+X, or consumption plus investment plus government expenditure plus net exports; it would appear self evident that an increase in net exports would increase GDP.

This is, unfortunately, completely wrong. There are two ways that it is wrong, both pretty fundamental….

Notes on the Next Bust

On Currency Devaluation (Deliberate and Otherwise)

Ari Andricopoulos, principal at Dacharan Advisory AG, PhD. in Financial Mathematics

Did Donald Trump just cause a ferocious rally in the euro, smacking down Draghi and the ECB?

Earlier this morning the ECB put through a surprise rate cut, moving its main rate from 0.05% to 0.00% and it also moved its bank deposit rate further negative to -0,4% from -0.3%.

This sparked an immediately selloff in the euro.

I sent out a tweet immediatley after that happened, telling people to buy the euro!

Buy EURUSD on this rate cut!

— Michael Norman (@mikenorman) March 10, 2016

Donald Trump was giving an interview on CNBC at the time and he was asked about the ECB rate cut and he said this:

Trump told CNBC that such devaluations were driving manufacturing and other jobs outside of the United States.

"We just sit back and do nothing," Trump said. "That's getting to be very dangerous as far as I'm concerned."

The euro rallied 300 pips in minutes.

Nice trade!

And to those who say Donald Trump has no experience, he's a buffoon, he's not presidential, well, he's been influencing policy without lifting a finger. #DraghiSmackdown.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch cracks down on fraud...wow. 243 arrested for $700 million in medical fraud. Banks do billions $$, get off with fines.

Wow. So happy our new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch is getting tough on fraud. She had 243 people arrested for a $700 million case of medical fraud.

National Medicare Fraud Takedown Results in Charges Against 243 Individuals for Approximately $712 Million in False Billing

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced today a nationwide sweep led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 17 districts, resulting in charges against 243 individuals, including 46 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $712 million in false billings. Read more. 

Wow.

Hey,  $700 million is not peanuts, but what about the billions, no, tens of billions, hundreds of billions, TRILLIONS, that the banks committed and they get off with nothing but fines.

Shit...last month 5 banks pleaded guilty to currency manipulation and paid fines of $5.5 billion. If that was the fine imagine what the size of the fraud must have been?

Then there was Libor fraud, foreclosure fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, wire fraud, plus more in the past. Not to mention the fact they wrecked the entire global economy.

And what happened?

Nothing. Not a single bank executive was arrested.

What a sham.

5 big banks plead guilty to criminal charges and nothing happens to them or their CEOs. In fact, the CEOs get raises!

Too big to jail.

The banks are JP Morgan Chase, Citi, RBS, UBS and Barclays. They pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Yet NOTHING is going to happen to them apart from paying some token fine, which amounts to "cost of doing business."

More importantly, their CEOs get off scott free. In fact, Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase, CEO) is getting a pay raise to over $20 million per year.

Why the fuck do we have Sarbanes-Oxley? For what? To put two-bit reality TV stars in a jail? The law was supposed to make fraudulent or illegal activity by an enterprise ALSO a criminal and punishable offense to the CEO or executive who signed off on the company's documents.

Instead, Jamie Dimon and probably all of the other guys, got a raise, which is disgusting because it shows you that they really suck at what they do. They make money only when they cheat. They can't make it legitimately.

Worst of all, though, is the fact that this just highlights--IN YOUR FACE--how justice is a travesty. The system is corrupt beyond belief.

***P.S. Notice how our new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, picks up right where Eric Holder left off: by letting these criminal enterprises and their leaders off with a slap on the wrist.

Dean Baker — Obama is failing us all by ignoring the need for currency rules in TPP

The value of the dollar relative to other currencies is by far the main determinant of our balance of trade. We can talk about better education and training for our workforce, improving our infrastructure and better research, all of which are important for the economy.

But anyone who claims that improvements in these areas can offset the impact of a dollar that is overvalued against another currency by 15-20% is out of touch with reality. If the dollar is overvalued by 20% against another country’s currency, it has the same effect as imposing a 20% tariff on US exports and giving a government subsidy of 20% to imports.

This is the direct effect when other countries deliberately buy up US assets to prop up the dollar against their currency. This is the main reason the United States is currently running a trade deficit of more than $500bn a year.
This trade deficit creates a huge gap in demand. It has the same impact as if households were taking $500bn a year out of their paychecks and stuffing the money under their mattress. There is no obvious way to make up this gap in demand. In principle we could fill the gap with large budget deficits, but this is a political non-starter....

The Guardian
Obama is failing us all by ignoring the need for currency rules in TPP
Dean Baker

h/t Mark Thoma at Economist's View

Reuters — BoE's King warns of growing currency competition

The head of the Bank of England warned on Monday that too many countries were trying to weaken their currencies to offset the impact of the slow global economy and the trend could grow next year.

Reuters
BoE's King warns of growing currency competition
Jonathan Spicer and Edward Krudy