Bad Idea: Devaluing Currency to Help Exporters

Bad Idea: Devaluing Currency to Help Exporters by Frank Hollenbeck, Mises Institute

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to shortly print over 1 trillion euros has reignited concerns over currency wars. The euro has dropped almost 20 percent over the last six months after endless hints from the ECB.

We are in a currency war, and have been since 2008. Our current global monetary system is deeply flawed in spite of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was supposedly created to foster monetary cooperation and financial stability. Yet, the IMF has been eerily silent lately, which has not gone unnoticed by those who butter the IMF’s bread.

The current unwritten rule on exchange rate policy is that direct intervention...