President Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, was playing with fire last week when he told US senators that China was “manipulating” its currency. To manage the economic imbalances at the heart of today’s crisis, the US must bring China on board. Rattling sabres will only complicate that task.
Since China abandoned its dollar peg in 2005, the renminbi has in fact gained more than 20 per cent against the greenback. No wonder the Chinese feel slighted by Mr Geithner’s rebuke. Pandering to anti-China sentiment in the US Congress may have helped to smooth the confirmation process for the new secretary, under pressure for underpaying his taxes. But given the virulence of some US politicians on the US-China trade relationship, it may even have been a way to forestall more radical congressional demands in the future.
The episode highlights how managing Congress risks getting in the way of a responsible international economic policy. Mr Obama must start to see the crisis as a global economic problem, not something the US can solve by itself.
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