Advocates for revaluation of China's exchange rate have argued that an appreciation would boost demand for U.S. goods and shrink the U.S. trade deficit, but Chinese currency revaluation cannot provide a quick fix to the U.S. economic predicament.

Increased flexibility in China"s currency would provide China with a greater degree of monetary policy independence from the United States than its dollar peg affords it today.

Politicians of both parties are blaming China for high U.S. jobless rates, but in truth, the impact on the U.S. economy of a change in Chinese currency policy could well be so small that it would be almost impossible to detect.

China's announcement that it would let its currency begin to move seems like the successful culmination of the Obama administration's strategy on Chinese currency practices, but the president may not be able to claim the victory.

Fashioning Chinese currency revaluation as one risks both unwelcome international consequences and failure to take helpful steps at home.

If China is to avoid a major protectionist backlash in both Europe and the United States, it will need to wean its economy from its overdependence on exports.

President George W. Bush would do well to welcome the 9 per cent effective appreciation of the Chinese currency over the past year.

Allowing the Kim regime to collapse is a better alternative than propping up a nuclear-armed dictatorship on the Korean peninsula.