[swampplanet]

"A weaker currency 'makes them more competitive and reduces the burden of debt," - makes them more competitive? It makes the pricing lower but not more competitive. China and any other country that is racing to the bottom is playing a losing game in the long term. In short term, there may be some benefit but as with anything that becomes commoditized manufacturing is only as good as your last price.

As far as relief of debt that theory has been shown wrong for a good number of years. Lowering the value of a currency may look good to someone who is in debt but it makes those hold the debt less likely to lend which freezes capital and we all go into recession.

Should the US currency not be tied to world gas/oil and other commodity markets we could be seeing what's happening in Japan (pre-quake) where they were a a neg interest rate and are the most highly in debt country. They tried lowering their debt by devaluing but it hasn't and won't work.