Obama Enters G20 Currency Fray

Days ahead of a G20 summit, President Obama has weighed in on an international debate over currency, as the US seeks to cull huge German and Chinese trade surpluses, the Wall Street Journal reports. At a New Delhi press conference, Obama seemed supportive of the Fed’s decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds. “The Fed's mandate, my mandate, is to grow our economy,” he said. “That's good for the world as a whole.”

The White House typically steers clear of suggesting involvement with the Federal Reserve, an independent body. Berlin has slammed the US currency policy. “It doesn't add up when the Americans accuse the Chinese of currency manipulation and then, with the help of their central bank's printing presses, artificially lower the value of the dollar,” said the German finance minister.
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