<b>A V Rajwade:</b> The spectre of a currency war

Such a war would hurt global growth and that of India as well

Whatever the logic of Donald Trump’s criticism of other countries running trade surpluses with the US through currency manipulation, the possibility of his imposing import duties can hardly be ruled out. He has certainly highlighted trade imbalances as the major issue in the global economy. 

The possible currency/trade war is only one of several interesting parallels to the 1930s. Both the 1930s and the 2000s were preceded by major crises in asset markets. In 1929, it was the stock market crash, while 2008 witnessed a major global banking crisis following the collapse of the mortgage market in the US. Another parallel