Japanese officials left the German spa town of Baden-Baden more refreshed than you'd think. It was a blow, certainly, that the Americans banished the free trade imperative from the Group of 20 platform. But Tokyo came away from the weekend confab with its weak yen strategy intact.
The post-Group of 20 glow may be short-lived.
U.S. President Donald Trump's main gripe is with Beijing, whose policies he's said are "raping our country." Surely, there's plenty of scope to hit China for predatory trade practices, subsidies for state-owned giants and a bull market in counterfeit goods. The more this White House studies foreign exchange dynamics, though, the more it'll see the yuan is overvalued given dueling bubbles in Chinese debt, credit and property. Beijing is actually waging a war with yuan bears, which is pushing its arsenal of foreign currency reserves below $3 trillion.
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