Month: August 2019
Jackson Hole – An eye peeled for dissent
On rate cuts: follow the leader
We speak to Tony Nash, Chief Economist and CEO of Complete Intelligence, on the decisions of central banks of New Zealand, India and Thailand to cut interest rates, the PBOC’s motivation to set its reference rate for the yuan, and whether investors will be holding on to the greenback as a safe haven currency.
There is no direct US legal provision linking currency manipulation with more tariffs, but it does free the US president up to take more unilateral action. Other courses of action include a ban on US government procurement from China, an end to trade talks and an investigation by the International Monetary Fund
Tony Nash, the CEO of research firm Complete Intelligence, said that Trump is unlikely to change trajectory at this point and that the issue is “not about Chinese yuan in isolation”.
“You are talking about subsidies, non-tariff barriers, currency, everything, and everything [Trump’s] talking about is related to the well-being of American workers,” Nash said. “Trump has started bundling things that you cannot unbundle.”