US and China need to avoid fiscal arms race at all costs

The geo-strategic contest between the US and China has entered a new and unpredictable phase. Last Monday, the Chinese monetary authorities allowed the country’s currency, the renminbi (also called the yuan), to fall below seven to the US dollar, which investors had begun to see as a symbolic level. In response, the US Treasury announced that China was a “currency manipulator”.

The developments sent stock and bond markets tumbling around the world. Investors ...