Mr. Greenspan, If It Ain't Broke . . .

Fed chairman Alan Greenspan said that China will unpeg its currency from the dollar sooner rather than later because China's currency, "is beginning to significantly work to the detriment of the Chinese economy."

With all due respect to the Maestro, I want to suggest that his view is significantly wrong.

Since China pegged its yuan to the dollar in 1994, their economy has grown by 8.6 percent a year -- inflation-adjusted -- with only a 3.1 percent inflation rate. I'd say that's pretty darn good.

In the past year China has grown by 9.5 percent with only 2.7 percent inflation, which by the way has come down from over 5 percent. I'd say that's pretty good. And the stable yuan has attracted billions of dollars of foreign investment, which has helped the market liberalizing Chinese economic policies.

Currency instability is a terrible idea. So is currency manipulation. A much higher yuan will significantly depress economic growth in both China and the U.S.

As for trade, the best thing the U.S. could do is slash business taxes here at home to make us more competitive abroad.

But all forms of currency or trade protectionism will damage prosperity and undercut foreign relations. China has a lot of work to do on democratization, religious freedom, and market reforms. But destabilizing their succesful economy by destabilizing their currency is a truly bad idea.

You know, Mr. Greenspan, there's an old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.