NEW YORK â A pointed question now hangs over global markets as the US Treasury links arms with Japan to confront yen bears: who actually holds the leverage â Washington or Tokyo?
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent plainly wants his Japanese counterpart, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, to treat this joint intervention as a privilege â to feel humbled, even, that President Donald Trump deems Japan worthy of American support as the yen hits 40-year lows.
Trump casts the first USâJapan currency operation since 2011 as a âsignal of friendship,â a gesture he claims will lift economies everywhere. And itâs true: violent yen swings can be brutally destabilizing. Few financial accelerants are more explosive than the âyen carry trade,â a strategy that has vaporized more than a few hedge funds.
