Look no further than the Economist’s Big Mac Index to understand who is on the Treasury’s Naughty List. It uses July exchange rates, so a bit dated as the most recent currency moves are not included.
Interestingly, Japan and Brazil have not been called out for their recent currency intervention. The price of a Big Mac in Tokyo is now $3.90 and $5.00 in Rio at the current exchange rate. Bloomberg reports,
When asked whether he thought Japan had “set the fire” for this dynamic, Geithner responded, “I don’t, no” in remarks at the Brookings Institution.
Instead, Geithner kept up his calls for China to let the yuan rise against the dollar. He said the “main problem” facing foreign-exchange markets is “a set of emerging-market economies that both remain undervalued and are leaning heavily against the pressures for appreciation.”
Wow, $1.95 Big Macs in Beijing and $7.20 Big Macs in Norway! You could sail the QE3 through that gap!



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