The surprising debate on exchange rate manipulation
Donald Trump believes that China and the euro zone are manipulating their exchange rates. To be sure, China and the euro zone are keeping interest rates extremely low and China is no longer losing foreign exchange reserves. But this debate on exchange rate manipulation is surprising because, in contemporary economies, while an exchange rate depreciation boosts industrial activity, it reduces economywide activity because of the deterioration in the terms of trade and the resulting fall in consumption (this has been seen in Japan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, etc.).