Switzerland might be a neutral nation militarily, but it's perfectly happy to join battles in the global currency wars, notes
MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends.
"Switzerland fired the latest salvo in the currency wars this month," when it implemented a negative interest rate on deposits, he writes.
"The Swiss have been fighting back in the currency wars since 2011, when the European credit crisis was causing such a flight into Swiss francs that the central bank had to adopt a virtual peg to the euro."
The most important recent currency movement is the plunge of the yen, he argues. The dollar rose to a seven-year high against the Japanese currency this month.
A weaker yen might help Japan by boosting its exports. But, "this is a zero-sum game," Arends writes.
"A weaker yen against other currencies is the same as stronger currencies against the yen. The eurozone was already struggling, even before the latest slump in the yen. And there are some signs of slowdown in China as well," he notes.
"Asia's two biggest economies are basically fighting a war with paper currencies. What could possibly go wrong?" Arends quips.
Star investor Jim Rogers is concerned about currency wars too.
"Whether it's an intentional war or an accidental war or side effect, I don't know, but it's certainly happening,"
Rogers tells Wall Street Daily. "Just look around, you see that nearly every currency in the world is down a lot against the U.S. dollar, except the Chinese renminbi."
The dollar climbed to a two-year high against the euro earlier this month.
"I don't know if somebody sat around and plotted, 'Let's have a currency war,'" Rogers explains. "They just said, 'What we need to do is print a lot of money,' without realizing it's going to cause currency fluctuations."
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