The 2024 annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are taking place in Washington, DC. Yellen, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, spoke at a press conference on the opening day of the conference with Tuesday (22nd local time-RRB- , addressing financial executives and other participants from around the world, this paper introduces the economy and prospect of the United States and the views of the United States on the development of the world economy.
But while the Associated Press and other American media have focused on Yellen’s criticism of former president Donald Trump’s “Isolationism” policy, on social networks outside the country, many foreign netizens were more concerned about an incident that occurred during Yellen’s speech.
A full video of Yellen’s remarks, posted on the Treasury’s official social media account, shows a reporter from the financial times asking Yellen questions. The question for the journalist, Colby Kirby Smith, is that, given that Yellen had previously said “Tariff abuse” was a mistake, she asked Ms. Yellen to elaborate on how this would affect the U.S. economy in the short term and the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency in the long term.
And just as Smith was asking about the dollar’s status, the badge of the US Treasury Department in front of Yellen’s lectern suddenly fell off and landed with a “Bang” on the floor. Even Yellen himself was surprised by the scene and looked down.
A slightly embarrassed Yellen then answered questions. First, she said that the abuse of tariffs will have a very negative impact on the United States, will lead to the rise of domestic prices, will have a very negative impact on consumers, and will hurt the competitiveness of enterprises that need to import intermediate products for production, and hurting America’s export industries. She also said she did not think tariffs would solve America’s trade deficit.
But when it comes to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, MS Yellen is less than forthcoming. She did not answer a reporter’s question about the impact of abusive tariffs on the dollar’s status, it is a signal that strong macroeconomic performance and highly liquid capital markets, as well as low inflation and the rule of law, have convinced her that the dollar is irreplaceable.
