QE - currency market intervention by another name

Tokyo

THE term "beggar thy neighbour" has taken on a whole new meaning with the advent of quantitative easing (QE) by the world's leading central banks. Thanks to QE, they can now afford to engage in competitive devaluations of their currencies while avoiding the stigma of direct market intervention.

This is bad enough in itself from the point of view of the damage it does to the cause of global monetary cooperation. But an even worse aspect of QE is that it distorts the playing field not only for those advanced economies that are playing the game, but also for emerging economies that are passive spectators.