Floating Exchange Rates: Unworkable and Dishonest

By: Keith Weiner | Tue, Apr 17, 2012
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Milton Friedman was a proponent of so-called "floating" exchange rates between the various irredeemable paper currencies that he promoted as the proper monetary system. Many have noted that the currencies do not "float"; they sink at differing rates, sometimes one is sinking faster and then another. This article focuses on something else.



Friedman was wrong.

To see why, one must look at the concept known to economists as "Terms of Trade". This phrase refers to the quantity of goods that can be purchased with the proceeds of the goods exported. For example, country X uses the xyz currency. It exports xyz1000 worth of goods and it can thereby pay for xyz1000 worth of imports. But what happens if the xyz drops relative to the currency's of X's trading partners, because X is running a trade deficit?




And, of course, Friedman had to be aware that America was likely to be biggest trade deficit runner in the world. Its currency, the dollar, was (and is) the world's reserve currency. That means that every central bank in the world held dollars as the asset, and pyramided credit in their own currencies on top of the dollars.

What would happen if the dollar weakened because the US was importing real goods and exporting paper dollars? The US would simply import the same goods next year and export even more paper dollars to compensate for the drop in the dollar!

Friedman would have also been aware of the economist Robert Triffin, who wrote in the early 1960's about a problem that became known as Triffin's Dilemma. In essence, the issue is that the world needs to expand credit to grow and so has demand for more US dollars. But this can only occur if the US runs a perpetual trade deficit, which would weaken the US dollar.

To the central banks that hold dollars as the reserve asset, this is deadly. Like any bank, a central bank has assets and liabilities. If a significant component of the assets are composed of US dollars, and the US dollar falls, the central bank's balance sheet deteriorates. The liabilities side, of course, is the central bank's own currency. So the asset is falling and the liability is not. This is a dangerous situation and unsustainable.

And to blithely propose this as a system is to propose open theft. Why should any country agree to allow the US to dissipate its savings, defaulting on the US dollar obligations in slow motion, a few percent per year as Friedman proposed?

The scheme of floating exchange rates of irredeemable paper currencies is therefore dishonest as well as unworkable. Today, some 40 years after the plunge into the worldwide regime of irredeemable paper currencies, it's starting to matter.



Keith Weiner

Author: Keith Weiner

Keith Weiner

Keith Weiner



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