Risky Manila currency move tells a big global story

ECONOMIC policy in the Philippines strayed into the forbidden zone and survived. That a risky tactic to counter pressure on emerging markets worked out also tells the story of a shift in the global interest-rate terrain in recent months and points to where they might be headed.

Things could have gone very wrong after the top Philippines finance official identified a specific value for the-then beleaguered currency that the government would defend, perhaps at considerable cost to the nation’s coffers. Failure would have dented the nation’s credibility — or worse.

Instead, the country scraped through, with much help from forces beyond the archipelago. In particular, the US, the place emerging markets have long desired to stand apart from but can never quite manage to decouple.