Donald Trump's top trade adviser Peter Navarro accused Germany of profiting from a 'grossly undervalued' currency. At the same time the President said countries such as Germany, Japan and China are responsible for 'global freeloading' due to their weak currencies.
Today, currency wars are raging across global markets, entering an even more dangerous phase, but they are nothing new. In this 5 year anniversary edition, James Rickards, two-timeNew York Timesbestseller and Strategic Adviser to the US intelligence community, explores how currency wars are just as problematic now as they were in 1971 when President Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard.
Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics; at best, they result in countries stealing growth from their trading partners; at worst, they degenerate into inflation, recession and actual violence. Rickards analyses the 2008 US financial crash, the debasement of the dollar, the European debt crisis, bailouts in Greece and Ireland and Chinese exchange rate manipulation, as a series of attacks and counter-attacks and ultimately as indications of growing global currency conflict. But, the author concludes, in currency wars, as in real wars, there are never any winners and without systematic reform, it could end with massive casualties on all sides.
In this special five year edition, featuring analysis of the 'Age of Trump' and encounters with Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and General Hayden, Rickards points the way towards a more effective course of action one that could stabilise the global economy and broker peace and prosperity for all.
