Wal-Mart Guilty of Currency Manipulation?

“Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is cutting prices on thousands of products in an aggressive campaign to reinforce its reputation as a discount leader, as the company seeks to reverse months of slowing U.S. sales. The company says it believes that, despite increasing consumer optimism, many Americans will continue to struggle in the months ahead. So, it is cutting prices this week on roughly 10,000 items, mostly food and other staples.”

MP: In other words, Wal-Mart is engaging in a new round of currency manipulation by cutting its retail prices, which makes the U.S. dollar artificially overvalued in relation to Wal-Mart’s goods. This attempt to manipulate the currency and lure customers into buying more of its products with an overvalued dollar will create job losses at Target and other retailers, and should be investigated by the government. If found guilty, Wal-Mart should be forced to stop manipulating the U.S. dollar, and should be pressured to raise its prices back to the pre-price cutting campaign levels.

About Mark J. Perry 262 Articles

Affiliation: University of Michigan

Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan.

He holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University in Washington, D.C. and an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Since 1997, Professor Perry has been a member of the Board of Scholars for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan research and public policy institute in Michigan.

Visit: Carpe Diem

2 Comments on Wal-Mart Guilty of Currency Manipulation?

  1. Kind of a stretch to suggest Wal-Mart is manipulating currency values because they are lowering prices. Do you want to take all the retailers (and manufacturers) who offer coupons to court too?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.