Leverage...

...Seems like the Treasury is unaware of how much we really have.

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, by delaying a report on global currency policies, is betting international diplomacy will work better than U.S. pressure to get China to strengthen the yuan.

In an April 3 statement, Geithner announced the delay of the report, scheduled for April 15, and urged China to move toward a more flexible currency. He said a series of meetings over the next three months will be “critical” to bringing policy changes that lead to a stronger, “more balanced” global economy. The decision came days after Chinese President Hu Jintao announced plans to visit Washington for a nuclear summit April 12-13.

The Treasury chief faces demands from Congress to label China a currency manipulator for keeping the value of the yuan little changed from about 6.83 to the dollar for almost two years. Geithner is instead expressing confidence that China will take steps on its own in the next several months to strengthen its currency.

The move will give China space to relax currency controls “without looking like they’re kowtowing to U.S. pressure,” said David Gilmore, a partner at Foreign Exchange Analytics in Essex, Connecticut.