BUSINESS

Money pumping may lead to a currency war that leads to nowhere

Business, Paul Donovan, Published on 28/09/2012

» The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan have all applied additional easing measures to their monetary policy management in the past couple of months. The Bank of England got there first with additional easing announced earlier in the year. The Swiss National Bank is printing money on a scale that is almost Zimbabwean in its volume. Are these salvos in a war to devalue currencies _ a war that must ultimately fail (for you have to have one strong currency to devalue against)? Or are central banks trying to devalue their currencies against commodities such as oil?