Senator Elizabeth Warren called for “actively managing” the dollar’s valuation as part of a plan she says would create American jobs and protect industry.
In a plan she released Tuesday, Warren said managing the U.S. currency would “promote exports and domestic manufacturing," aligning her more with President Donald Trump, who has blamed a strong dollar for hurting U.S. exports, than with past Democratic administrations.
Warren cited currency management by other countries and blamed foreign investors and central banks for having "driven up the value of our currency for their own benefit." The U.S. should work with other countries “harmed by currency misalignment,” according to the proposal.
“If we can aggressively intervene in markets to protect the interests of the wealthy and well-connected -- as we have for decades with bailouts and subsidies -- then we can damn well use all the tools at our disposal to protect the interests of American workers,” Warren said in the proposal.
Trump has previously expressed concern about the dollar’s appreciation and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in 2017 that an “excessively strong dollar” could have negative effects on the U.S. economy.
‘Economic Patriotism’
The Massachusetts senator released the economic proposals ahead of campaign trips to Michigan and Indiana, where she’s expected to discuss her vision of "economic patriotism" in a part of the country that’s home to the U.S. industrial sector and may be pivotal in deciding whether Trump is re-elected.
Warren also called for scrapping the Commerce Department and putting in its place a new agency called the Department of Economic Development. It would subsume the Small Business Administration, Patent and Trademark Office and take on export and trade powers like the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It would also be tasked with research and development initiatives.
"The new Department will have a single goal: creating and defending good American jobs," said the proposal, which is the latest of many policy blueprints she has released.
A second policy blueprint released Tuesday by the Warren campaign, called the "Green Manufacturing Plan," seeks to invest $2 trillion over the next decade in clean-energy research, manufacturing and exports as part of meeting the targets of the Green New Deal, which Warren supports.