Asian Mercantilist Policy: Whom to Blame?

The so-called American economists like Paul Krugman bash the Asian mercantilist policy (See Krugman’s latest article on this issue http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/opinion/13krugman.html?_r=3).

Intelligent minds wouldn’t argue against Krugman’s claim: “the consequences of this policy are also stark and simple: in effect, China is taxing imports while subsidizing exports, feeding a huge trade surplus.”

And yet, China’s currency manipulation was not a problem 10 years ago, but suddenly became an imminent issue?

Could these policies China, Japan and Korea have employed have been possible without the U.S. policy letting this happen?

When and why did China start devaluing the yuan and then pegging it to the USD?

When did the Korean and Japanese production start to be moved to China and what was the reason for that?

So are the financialization of the American economy and its destroyed manufacturing base in large part attributable to the Asian trading partners’ mercantilist policy?

Give us a break.

Of course, we shouldn’t disregard the fact that some Asian countries have pursued their mercantilist policy at the expense of their own consumers for decades.