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Comment by fwdpropaganda | Hacker News Reader

The US manipulates the value of its currency, exactly as do 100% of the countries on this planet.

That you're repeating an attack that applies exactly to you means you're either ignorant or dishonest.

The US manages the value of its currency indirectly but the market sets the price. China controls its currency value by fiat (well, beyond a small currency market in HK), but must still do the same indirect management to avoid carry trade issues.

What makes the RMB inappropriate for international trade is that it isn’t fully convertible like the US dollar is.

> The US manages the value of its currency indirectly but the market sets the price.

The market sets the price based on (amongst other things) interest rates, and the US sets the interest rates however it's more convenient for its trade.

Are you saying that one is acceptable and the other one isn't? To me it seems that the difference is one of degree. I'm highly suspicious of anyone who says that this difference is a good justification for tariffs.

The Fed sets interest rates, not the US government. It’s not like DJT or Congress can lower or raise interest rates themselves, they can’t even apply pressure to the Fed beyond making appointments.

I’m not making any value judgements. As a once holder of RMB, I find inconvertibility to be a huge PITA, definitely unfair for those that have to hold it. As for trade issues, I don’t think the RMB is artificially valued in a way that seriously benefits Chinese trade, quite the contrary actually (it is artificially high, not low, ATM).

> The Fed sets interest rates, not the US government.

Who said anything about US gov? If I say "the US sets USD interest rates", responding that "it's not the US gov, it's the Fed" sounds likes you're using an argument that's often used in a different conversation.

You use US as if it’s some singular person, and of course it isn’t. The US could mean an organization, a government, a market, you never specified.

In China, the government control everything, there are no independent bodies. That is a huge difference between the way things work in each country.

You use the Chinese government as if it's some singular person, and of course it isn't.

Yes, that’s why I said Chinese government and not China.

And you use it as if it's some singular person, and of course it isn't, just like I use "the US" as if it's some singular person, which it also isn't. So we're both doing the same thing, and you're pointing that thing to me whilst doing the same thing. You used "the Chinese government", I used "the US", we both used it as if it's some singular person, and of course it isn't. Not sure how many more ways I can say this until you get it.

If Xi wants some move to occur in the RMB or Chinese interest rates, it will happen. If Donald Trump wants something to happen it won’t.

Yes, the Chinese government is vast, but the power structure is very hierarchical with no checks.

That sounds like the cartoonish view of the Chinese gov that someone who only has any contact with it through western media buys into.

It should sound like that, but unfortunately the point they are making is true.

Yes, that is exactly a reasonable assessment of how the Chinese government works. The assessment you get from the Chinese media, which I look at a lot having been a long term foreigner in china, is much much worse than that, of course.

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