Isn't the US government trying to pressure China to stop debasing their currency? Only to go do it themselves?
Our government claims China is a "currency manipulator" because they buy US Dollars on the open market. Since the Yuan is tied to the US Dollar, their currency will immediately depreciate. Japan also tries to manipulate their currency by selling Yen on the open market, in effort to debase it to drive exports up, but it has rarely worked for decades.
While on the other hand, our central bank tries to debase our currency by printing Federal Reserve Notes to buy US Treasuries. Not only UST's, but also other assets that banks hold. This successfully drives the dollar down and commodities up in value, and that supports stock prices. But that's what the Obama administration and the large banks and FED want, as that creates the
illusion that the economy is actually recovering. But it is not. Instead, the purchasing power of the average saver and citizen is reduced.
So it's all bullshit. It's all a huge fraud. Our FED is a huge currency manipulator and they know what they're doing. Americans can't seem to understand this fact so they have no idea why their money isn't worth as much as it was previously.
EDIT: and this is why the economy is a huge Ponzi scheme. With the FED buying treasuries the government can't
technically go bust, but if the FED is the only buyer of government debt, then we will have hyperinflation of the dollar where oil goes to $300 per barrel along with all other food commodities and everything else.