Economist Steven Roach of Morgan Stanley Asia has some not-so-kind words for economist Paul Krugman and his view that the Chinese currency should be allowed to strengthen considerably from its current level.

Says Roach: “America doesn’t have a China problem, it has a savings problem … We should take out the baseball bat on Paul Krugman. I mean I think that the advice is completely wrong …. We’re lashing out at China rather than tending to our own business”.

According to this report, Krugman replied, “I’m a little surprised at Steve for saying that. What I said is actually based on pretty careful economic analysis. We have a world economy which is depressed by China artificially keeping its currency undervalued.”