Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 510, the Chinese Currency Accountability Act. I was proud to introduce this measure last year, which the Financial Services Committee embraced with a vote of 40-0. Mr. Speaker, the International Monetary Fund acts as the world's lender of last resort, and its Special Drawing Rights serve as a unit of account for its activities. SDRs are also important reserve assets on the balance sheet of central banks. As such, SDR holdings can earn interest, and SDR liabilities can incur costs. Prior to 2016, both the value and interest rate of the Special Drawing Rights was determined by major currencies issued by market economies and their central banks and overseen by democratic governments. They were the dollar, the euro, the yen, and the pound sterling. China is not a market economy, so it is astonishing that the International Monetary Fund, with the approval of the current Treasury Department, then decided to add the Chinese renminbi to its currency basket. On a number of measures, the renminbi was nowhere near the level of these other currencies, and, of course, the Chinese Central Bank is the furthest thing from what one would call independent or representative of a market economy. This is still the case today. Even more bewildering was the 2022 decision to increase the renminbi's weight, the proportion of influence it has, within the currency basket.…”