www.zerohedge.com BY TYLER DURDEN
By Michael Every of Rabobank
Bread-on Woods
Today, I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing in public with something Janet Yellen also said. That didn’t happen all the time she was at the Fed, nor since she entered politics (while continuing to talk as if she is still at the Fed). Nonetheless, she just said it will be a “Long time, if ever” before the USD is replaced as key global currency: which matches what I argued in “Why ‘Bretton Woods 3’ Won’t Work”.
I’m sure we had very different reasons for saying it, especially given Yellen was in favor of massive US fiscal stimulus, but not of onshoring supply chains to ensure it was not inflationary. I’m sure she wasn’t thinking that saying ‘Bretton Woods 3’ is to say “mercantilism is baaaack!” – and that an incumbent military, commodity, and financial superpower, with key global alliances, and willing to run a trade deficit with those it favours, can thrive in that realpolitik environment,… if the people running the place recognize it. (Just Google ‘Hamilton’ – and I don’t mean the musical.)
Moreover, Yellen spoke about Bretton Woods too (not Two) at a speech at The Atlantic Council. She noted the Ukraine War and Western sanctions, “are now seeing higher commodity prices that have added to global inflationary pressures and are posing threats to energy and food security, trade flows, and external balances across many countries. Much of our work next week during the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings will be centred on how we can better support developing countries as they weather these shocks…”
Daily News PDF Archives – Jellyfish.News