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The Wall Street JournalFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is firing back amid criticism at home and abroad of the Fed's easy-money policies, arguing that China and others are causing global problems by preventing their currencies from strengthening as their economies boom.By keeping their currencies artificially weak, Mr. Bernanke argues in remarks prepared for delivery in Frankfurt Friday,
China and other emerging markets are allowing their economies to overheat, preventing trade imbalances from adjusting and worsening what he called a "two-speed" global recovery. Their "strategy of currency undervaluation" is preventing more "balanced and sustainable" global growth, he warns.-snip-
Some also have accused the Fed of trying to weaken the dollar to spur U.S. exports.
Fed officials have denied that is their goal, though Mr. Bernanke effectively acknowledged the U.S. currency should weaken against currencies in emerging markets, because their economies are growing so much faster than economies in the developed world.
The Fed chairman's message, though scholarly in tone, was unusually blunt in laying blame for inflationary pressures in emerging markets and for tensions over currencies on countries like China. A chart accompanying his comments also pinpoints Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand as aggressively trying to hold their currencies down, while India, Chile and Turkey aren't.
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