Currency, the new WMD?

“Currencies have become new weapons,” headlines Dziennik Gazeta Prawnaafter Saturday’s stormy meeting of International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial ministers in Washington. Commenting on the US-China spat regarding the undervalued Chinese yuan, Dominique Strauss-Kahn –the IMF’s managing director- warned that “economic growth could be twice as slow while rich countries may face recession unless agreement is quickly reached.” The US has accused China of “destroying workplaces in America” and demanded a 1/3 increase in the yuan’s value. But Beijing fired back insisting that international financial markets remain unstable due to the US practice of “printing empty money.” The Warsaw daily argues that “spiralling world currency war, which Brussels still observes from the sidelines, could annihilate the anaemic economic growth recorded in the US and EU."