Asking if currency manipulation hurts American manufacturing is like asking if chain-smoking hurts one's ability to watch TV.
It seems to make things more pleasant in the short term, at least for some activities, but the end will come sooner.

2008 was just a pot-hole in the road leading to the cliff ahead. The real crash is coming. It will be the catastrophic end of the dollar. We're past the point of no return--past the point of returning to fiscal responsibility.

The few (Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Gerald Celente, Marc Faber, Robert Wiedemer) who warned us about 2008 and told us correctly, in great detail, how it would roll out are being ignored again.

My numbskull advisor says all the economists learned from that event and have incorporated the information into their calculations. BullS--t! They're treating '08 like a abberant, once-in-a-lifetime meteor hit and now are using the same calculations as before but with only slightly more trepidation. Meanwhile, the folks mentioned above who are saying that was just a precursor are being ignored again.

The USA is not the victim here, the dollar is over valued by design. To maintain the dollars role as the world's most used currency, the US must export dollars. Over the long term, the only way to export dollars is to import goods. The dollar's role as preferred reserve currency allows US banks and those with close connections to them to buy up the world's assets on the cheap, giving the US unique influence across the globe by controlling key assets, particularly oil and gas and their distribution facilities. The full weight of the US State Department and military will fall on those countries not willing to play ball ie... Russia/Ukraine, Syria's unwillingness to transit oil for the Arab gulf states. From the eyes of those who control commerce in this country, manufacturing is NOT where the money is, money is where the money is.

US manipulate currency too. Every country manipulates currency for its own gain.
I'm sorry! Nobody cares about our pocket. They only care for their pockets. Why do the Chinese care? We can have restrictions but If they can't make money of American, they don't care.

China, Japan and 20 other countries directly intervene in foreign exchange markets. That's the primary (but not the exclusive) way they do it. They accumulate reserves of other currencies. The only reason to do FOREX intervention is to gain a trade advantage. Whatever you think of QE, the US government does not participate in FOREX markets like this. Imagine the outcry if the Fed did that just like other countries' central banks! The "US manipulates too" crowd is incorrect. Further, to the extent that domestic actions like "printing money" impact the US dollar value downward, it is moving the dollar towards equilibrium, not away. The dollar is overvalued and should move lower towards equilibrium. The Chinese devalue to move the RMB lower - or away from equilibrium. IMF rules are designed to promote equilibrium. Countries that move currencies away from equilibrium are acting wrongly. Countries that move currencies towards equilibrium are acting rightly.

The comments by both RayL80 and timaiday are completely inaccurate and ignorant of the world we live in. Currency wars are real and with us and we are not the currency cheaters, try China, Japan, Germany, with the gorilla being China. Collins is spot on.