Investment expert John Rutledge says President Donald Trump is wrong in his proclaimation that the Chinese are the "grand champions" of currency manipulation.
"Trump is an idiot on this. He has no clue what currency manipulation means," the chief investment officer of global investment firm Safanad told CNBC on Friday.
Rutledge, who was one of the principal architects of President Ronald Reagan's economic plan, said China is actually trying to support its currency.
"Chinese authorities have actually sold a trillion dollars' worth of foreign reserves in the last year to support their currency that's trying to fall because Chinese nationals are trying to get their money out of China," he said. That is anti-manipulation."
Trump on Thursday declared China the "grand champions" of currency manipulation on Thursday, just hours after his new Treasury secretary pledged a more methodical approach to analyzing Beijing's foreign exchange practices.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Trump said he has not "held back" in his assessment that China manipulates its yuan currency, despite not acting on a campaign promise to declare it a currency manipulator on his first day in office.
"Well they, I think they're grand champions at manipulation of currency. So I haven't held back," Trump said. "We'll see what happens."
During his presidential campaign Trump frequently accused China of keeping its currency artificially low against the dollar to make Chinese exports cheaper, "stealing" American manufacturing jobs.
But Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday he was not ready to pass judgment on China's currency practices.
Asked if the U.S. Treasury was planning to name China a currency manipulator any time soon, Mnuchin said he would follow its normal process of analyzing the currency practices of major U.S. trading partners.
The Treasury is required to publish a report on these practices on April 15 and Oct. 15 each year.
"We have a process within Treasury where we go through and look at currency manipulation across the board. We'll go through that process. We'll do that as we have in the past," Mnuchin said in his first televised interview since formally taking over the department last week. "We're not making any judgments until we go continue that process."
A formal declaration that China or any other country manipulates its currency requires the U.S. Treasury to seek negotiations to resolve the situation, a process that could end in punitive tariffs on the offender's goods. The U.S. Treasury designated Taiwan and South Korea as currency manipulators in 1988, the year that Congress enacted the currency review law. China was the last country to get the designation, in 1994.
The current situation is complicated because China's central bank has spent billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves in the past year to prop up the yuan to counter capital outflows.
However, other respected economic gurus say Trump's strategy against other nations is on target and very much justified.
To be sure, Trump should focus on tackling unfair trade with China rather than Mexico, Newsmax Finance Insider and economist Stephen Moore recently told Newsmax TV.
“We don't need to tariff Mexican goods and services,” he told "America Talks Live" with Steve Malzberg.
“The import tariff is just a tax on consuming anything that comes in from Mexico, so it's a tax on American consumers. But more importantly, it'll hurt the Mexican economy and we don't want to do that,” said Moore, who regularly blogs as a Newsmax Finance Insider.
As his first month in office proves, Trump will be a demanding leader who applies the best of his negotiating skills to push for U.S. growth, as bestselling author David Horowitz recently predicted to TheStreet.com.
Trump won’t be an ideological purist like Republicans who support free trade but don't fight for fair trade, Horowitz said.
“We've had an anti-business president now for eight years who doesn't take a hard-nosed attitude towards these deals. Trump is going to get better deals for us, which is still free trade.”
Horowitz's new book, "The Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America," reveals Trump's "first 100 days strategy" to roll back Obama's legislative and executive record.
Trump will also lead the way in making infrastructure spending to boost the U.S. economy, Horowitz predicted.
"Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America" is available at bookstores everywhere – or get your copy on Amazon – Click Here Now
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