Elaine Dezenski and Damon Pitler
The United States has carried the load of global consumption for a long time. As the world’s largest importer, issuer of the world’s reserve currency, and market of last resort, the United States has absorbed the world’s excess capital for generations, boosting global growth, helping to lift 700 million Chinese citizens out of poverty, and taking on an astronomical amount of debt. What would life be like for America if it were not the leader of the free-market economy and the dominant player in the global monetary system?
The Trump administration’s tariff assault aims to wake Americans from decades of driving on economic autopilot. As we have slumbered, China has overtly orchestrated a systematic, multi-decade exchange rate devaluation to finance an unprofitable, forced, and militarized industrial boom. It is time to address this manipulation.
Their commission of such tactics has distorted global trade and capital imbalances at the expense and repression of Chinese households. For Americans, abundant capital inflows have inflated asset values for the wealthy while imposing financial repression on average workers, who struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living. We now find our national economic security in peril. If we do not address this disequilibrium, free market economies risk the very real prospect of flatlining and fading out.
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