Narayana Kocherlakota, Columnist

Bring On the Currency War

A stronger dollar would be good for the developed world.

May 18, 2016 at 11:00 AM UTC

Narayana Kocherlakota is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester and was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009 to 2015.

Fear not, Jacob.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The U.S. government seems concerned about what will happen if other big nations push down the value of their currencies against the dollar. Actually, it could be good for the global economy.

Ahead of this week's meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven developed nations, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has warned that the U.S.'s counterparts -- the three largest euro-area nations plus Canada, Japan and the U.K. -- might undermine global growth if they engage in policies that cause their currencies to depreciate against the dollar. In my view, his concerns are misplaced.