Long gone are the days when a Nixon administration official could quip: “The dollar may be our currency but it's your problem.” Gone too, it seems, is the assertiveness Timothy Geithner showed in January when he accused China of manipulating its currency. Events have since forced the US Treasury secretary to look to home. The trade-weighted dollar has fallen by 10 per cent after it peaked at a three-year high in March, prompting Mr Geithner to say this week that his “basic obligation” was to put in place policies that kept confidence “in our currency, that we sustain a strong dollar”.
曾幾何時，尼克松政府官員可以譏諷地說：「美元或許是我們的貨幣，但那是你們的問題。」這種日子早已成爲過去。同樣逝去的，似乎還有蒂姆•蓋特納(Tim Geithner)今年1月指責中國操縱貨幣時所表現出的那種自信。此後發生的諸多事件迫使這位美國財長將目光放到了國內。美元貿易加權匯率自今年3月創下3年來最高水準後已跌去10%，促使蓋特納上週表示，他的「基本職責」是實施相關政策，讓人們「對我們的貨幣、對我們將維持強勢美元」保有信心。