There’s been a lot of chatter in the past week about the value of the Chinese currency. Correct that: there’s been a lot of chatter in the past decade about the value of Chinese currency, and specifically it is charged that the rulers of that country keep the yuan renminbi depressed below it’s actual value in order to maintain their advantage as an exporter of manufactured goods.

This is unverifiable, but it’s a fact that China is a strong and growing export power. Indeed, it has been that for about 15 years, and the fulminating about the value of the Chinese currency has been ongoing, too. As the insightful Alan Tonelson pointed out in a note to the media:  the first LexisNexis mention of "China" and "currency manipulation" appeared May 1, 2002. (To be fair about Tonelson’s point of view, he thinks there is a pattern of manipulation, and contends that U.S. officials’ failure to address it has worsened the U.S trade deficit with China.)

Which, is what has brought us to recent chatter. Congressmen have begun to press the matter to the White House, the Treasury Department, and their voters. And, these lawmakers are getting rhetorical support from across the range of manufacturing groups, trade associations, and unions, hoping that such demands will cause China to acknowledge some responsibility for the U.S. trade deficit and agree to help reduce it.

That’s not going to happen. Raising trouble will be unseemly and unproductive. China is going to continue to do what it has done over the past 15 years to make that nation such a formidable trading partner. China is not the reason for the decline of domestic manufacturing, though it has been the beneficiary.

Decades of domestic policies that inflate manufacturing costs above global standards are the primary explanation for the problems of domestic manufacturers. A change of perspective that encourages domestic manufacturers to make long-term investments, one that recognizes domestic manufacturers as creators of capital and not just sources of government revenue, would be more constructive than blaming China.