Politics & Power Quote by Timothy Geithner

Geithner is trying to slam a door before anyone even reaches for the handle. The language is technocratic, but the emotional aim is political: reassure anxious trading partners and jittery markets that the U.S. won’t chase growth through a cheaper dollar. “Devalue its way to prosperity” frames currency weakness as a kind of cheat code - tempting, short-term, ultimately discrediting. He’s not just making an economic claim; he’s setting a moral boundary.

The quote lands in the shadow of the financial crisis, when the U.S. was pumping stimulus, running large deficits, and leaning on the Federal Reserve’s emergency measures. Globally, that looked like “beggar-thy-neighbor” policy dressed up as domestic rescue. China and other exporters were wary of American rhetoric about their exchange rates even as the U.S. benefited from a currency that could soften under loose monetary policy. Geithner’s point is to separate intentional devaluation (a deliberate trade tactic) from policy choices that incidentally affect the dollar.

The subtext is classic crisis diplomacy: don’t panic, don’t retaliate, don’t call this a currency war. “Not viable, feasible” is deliberately redundant - a lawyerly double-lock meant to sound definitive even as everyone knows the dollar’s value is partly beyond Treasury’s direct control. The closing “we will not engage in it” is a pledge of restraint and an assertion of credibility: America’s competitiveness, he implies, must come from productivity and stability, not from quietly moving the goalposts through the exchange rate.