Currency Wars: ECB Hints at Rate Cuts, Trump Slams Draghi in Tweetstorm
|President Trump pointed the finger at ECB president Mario Draghi in a Tweetstorm blast. Unfair! Unfair! Unfairly Easier What the Hell Does This Even Mean? Also, the statement is in quotes, but Trump is the source. Currency War Fears MarketWatch reports ‘Currency war’ fears rise as Trump slams Draghi’s hint at more ECB stimulus Tweetstorm Trigger The Wall Street Journal reports ECB Signals Possible Rate Cut Prompting Trump Tweets. Mr. Draghi said Tuesday that ECB policy makers would consider in the coming weeks how to adapt their policy tools “commensurate to the severity of the risk” to the economic outlook. Options include extending the time frame before the next interest-rate increase, a reduction in the already negative policy rate or restarting bond purchases. Asked in an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos about whether criticism of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell could undercut Mr. Powell’s credibility, Mr. Trump said, “Yes, I do. But I’m gonna do it anyway.” Investors responded favorably to Mr. Draghi’s remarks, sending the euro down by more than half a cent against the dollar, to $1.1187. Yields on 10-year German government bonds fell to a fresh all-time low of minus 0.315% as investors digested the prospect of fresh bond purchases by the ECB. French 10-year yields dropped sharply and hit 0%, their lowest ever. “The rate-cutting genie is out of the bottle,” said Bart Hordijk, FX market analyst at Monex Europe. “This opens the trapdoor to lower levels” of the euro against the dollar. ECB Target Interest Rate Already at -0.4% Interest rates at -0.4% did not help Europe and -1.0% or any other absurd number won't either. Nonetheless, the ECB is prepared to act. Draghi Responds Draghi responded that the ECB Does Not Target its Exchange Rate. “We have our remit, we have our mandate,” Draghi told an audience at the ECB’s annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, on Tuesday. Our mandate is price stability defined as a rate of inflation which is close to but below 2% over the medium term.” He iterated that the euro zone’s central bank is “ready to use all the instruments that are necessary to fulfill this mandate.” “And we don’t target the exchange rate,” he said to applause from the crowd. So what? The move has the same effect. Warren in Bed with Trump Yesterday, I noted Elizabeth Warren in Bed With Trump: Both Want to Sink the Dollar. I had no idea a currency war Tweetstorm was coming today. But here we are. The fact remains, there is no economic benefit to this nonsense. It is always a benefit for the consumer to get more for their money than less. Sadly, Warren, Trump, the ECB, Bank of Japan, and Bank of China all want the same fool thing: Higher inflation and less for your money. Race to the Bottom In the race to the bottom, the ECB is ahead.
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