Friday, February 15, 2013

Currency the latest threat to global economy

Michael Barber
2/15/2013
3:55 PM



The article I chose this week discussed the threat that a currency war could cause a crash within the global economy.  I am going to begin by explaining exactly what a currency war is.  A currency far takes place when a country intentionally weakens its currency in an attempt to boost its local economy.  Weakening a countries currency will help major exporting companies essentially boosting the economy.  It will also raise the value of imported goods, essentially in the same manner that a tariff would.  The war begins when other countries begin dropping the value of their currencies as well.  Currently Japan has been accused of intentionally weakening the value of the yen. They are doing this because they believe that it will boost the economy by raising the value of major exports like Toyota.   As a result, the International bank has increased the bank of Japan’s inflation goal to 2%.  There is a fear that this action could cause a currency war resulting in a crash of the global economy.  I think that this issue needs to brought to the attention of the WTO before it is too late.  Other developing countries have begun to notice japans strategy and have also attempted to mimic their actions.  If large economies attempt to respond to Japan’s weakening of the Yen, it may result in a very dangerous currency war.  With the recent global economic decline, currency has been overlooked.  I believe that this is an issue that needs to be paid very close attention to before our world experiences serious global economic crash.

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