Currency Wars the New Normal

Even though some people such as International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard have attempted to downplay the stimulus released into economies by central banks around the world, which has resulting in currency wars, the reality is that more countries will respond to the aggressive actions of the Federal Reserve, which has been the institution that fired the first, gigantic salvo, which has instigated the wars.

Bizarrely, Douglas McWilliams, who is over the Centre for Economics and Business Research, based in London, blames the Bank of Japan as the entity that launched the currency wars, even though the United States has aggressively debased the U.S. dollar for several years.

Most other developed nations are looking closely at the value of their currencies versus the U.S. dollar, especially China, Germany, and the European Union, as they will respond in kind if it looks like exports, and thus growth, will be seriously hampered by the easy-money policies of America and the Federal Reserve.

It's unlikely these practices will end any time soon, as the Federal Reserve is committed to creating money out of thin air in order to attempt to grow the U.S. economy, even though the practice continues to fail to reach that goal, even while the debt continues to pile up.

Currency Wars Heating Up

With domestic economic health at stake of a number of countries at stake because of the Federal Reserve's continual debasing of the U.S. dollar by printing an almost endless stream of money, a currency war has quietly broken out as nations attempt to devalue their own currencies in order to keep exports competitive on the world market.

Of course the currency war has been going on since the Federal Reserve implemented QE2 in August 2010, but it's ramping up because of the continual plunge in value of the U.S. dollar against a number of currencies, which in turn makes exports from other countries more expensive.

Japan is the latest player in the stimulus fiasco to boost their part in the money wars, with new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe committing to printing billions in yen to lower the value of the currency.

This will put pressure on other Asian players, who will be sure to respond in kind.

Other central banks printing money recently, along with the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, have been the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the ECB.

To give an idea of how the Federal Reserve has attacked the U.S. dollar, it has plummeted by approximately 11 percent in value since the first round of quantitative easing in 2009.

Expectations are many other countries will debase their currencies through central bank stimulus in order to protect their exports.

This should be very positive for commodities, and investors need to take a close look at this, especially in regard to how Asian nations outside of Japan respond to the unfolding circumstances.

Over the long term this will be a disaster as the central banks attempt to unwind their positions.

Dollar USD/JPY Almost at Monthly High against Yen

Ongoing weak economic data from the United States and concern the Japanese may intervene against the U.S. dollar, has the greenback moving up close to a monthly high against the yen.

Trading was slow Friday for the dollar versus the yen, as the range for the dollar shrank, rising close to 86 yen.

Fears the Bank of Japan may intervene if the dollar moved to about 85 yen kept the trading levels down.

Before the recent intervention of Japan, the dollar had dropped below 83, a 15-year low. Since then the dollar has enjoyed it best week since the latter part of April, gaining 1.8 percent.

The Bank of Japan may have spent about $20.98 billion to strengthen the dollar, according to the Bank of International Settlements.