Japan On The Brink.
The United States and Japan last week carried out a rare coordinated intervention in foreign exchange markets to stabilize the rapidly weakening yen, marking the first joint operation of its kind in more than a decade.
President Trump confirmed on Sunday that the Treasury Department had assisted Japanese authorities. In a statement, Satsuki Katayama, Japan’s finance minister, said the intervention was taken to counter “excessive volatility and disorderly movements” in the yen after months of sustained weakness.
The yen has depreciated steadily against the U.S. dollar this year, as investors have grown increasingly concerned about Japan’s expanding fiscal spending, amplified by higher energy costs stemming from the U.S. war with Iran. In July, the currency fell to its weakest level since the early 1980s, with the dollar briefly climbing above 163 yen, up from around 147 yen a year earlier.
By Joe Rennison and Kiuko Notoya,‘Ny Times’
The international monetary system remains fragile with major nations like Japan nearing a complete crisis. America, even with its own massive uncontrolled debt continues to ensure the dollar is used as the gold standard of international trade by monetarily propping up other major nations. The fear is China will swoop in an become the lender of last resort diminishing the American dollar and the administration does not want that to happen.
