Political Quotes

“I have seen no serious rebuttal of the points I made in that post or to similar and related points made by Simon Johnson, Fred Bergsten, and many other notable economists ranging from Art Laffer to Paul Krugman. Nevertheless, those who oppose currency disciplines continue to raise this false argument. Mr. Speaker, TPP should address instances in which countries buy large amounts of foreign assets over long periods of time to prevent an appreciation of their exchange rate despite running a large current account surplus. The Federal Reserve does not engage in such practices. That is why the U.S. already agreed to and even insisted upon what is in the current IMF guidelines. And now there is the claim that including currency disciplines in TPP would be a poison pill and that our trading partners would walk away from the table. There is no way to accurately judge this issue until it is properly brought to the negotiating table. To the contrary, the fact is that the administration says this only creates the risk of a self- fulfilling prophecy. {time} 1415 It is irresponsible to make this claim. Indeed, our trading partners in TPP would greatly benefit from these disciplines. Many of them are the victims of manipulation in every bit as much as we are. A progressive trade agreement for workers and the middle class must address currency manipulation, which has caused millions of job losses and contributed to waste stagnation over the last decade.…”