From ZeroHedge, August 2:
Japan, Bretton Woods 2.0, & The End Of The Carry Era
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama is set to announce as early as Monday that Tokyo and Washington are coordinating on steps in the foreign exchange market to curb the yen’s weakness, a person familiar with the situation told Bloomberg.
The content of the announcement is still being worked on but could happen as early as Monday morning, the person said, declining to be identified as the information isn’t public.
Reuters earlier reported Katayama would confirm the joint action, and reinforce the two sides’ commitment to battle what they deem as excessive declines in the yen.
Japanese authorities bought yen and sold dollars during New York trading on Friday, Bloomberg reported earlier, citing one person with knowledge of the matter. At the close of New York trading on Friday, the yen was quoted at 157.40 to the dollar, the strongest since early May.
Just two days earlier, it was flirting around the weakest levels since 1986.
The sharp gains were fueled by a combination of direct purchases of the yen, calls by officials to banks that trade the currency and jawboning from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Katayama.
Bessent’s commitment to shoring up the yen was also shown when Reuters published a photograph of a notepad in front of him at a cabinet meeting in Camp David on Friday.
Under a “To Do” title, it was written “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil.”
Japan’s original plan appeared to have been to stick to a “no comment” line while the operation was underway, and offer only subtle hints of US support.
The approach was kept to Thursday and Friday.
But with multiple media reports emerging and Bessent’s to-do list on show, authorities may have decided to change course and make a clear public announcement.
The operation on joint action is “still ongoing,” Reuters said, citing an unidentified government official.
As James Thorne, Chief Market Strategist at Wellington Altus, explained via X, Bessent’s move toward the New York Fed matters because it signals that Treasury understands the long end is being driven by flows, not by the inflation scare Wall Street keeps recycling.
Japan is now central to that story.
If Tokyo must defend the yen, the Ministry of Finance may need to sell U.S. Treasuries, and when the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt becomes a seller, the long end will reprice.
That is why this moment looks bigger than a routine currency episode.
It has the feel of a new Plaza Accord and the opening phase of Bretton Woods 2.0.
Since the 1980s, Japan has sat at the heart of the global yen carry trade, exporting savings, suppressing yields, and helping sustain a financial order built on cheap leverage and central-bank engineering. That order is now breaking down.
The end of QE and the coming end of the yen carry trade mean capital markets, not central banks, will increasingly set rates.
This is also why the inflation narrative is so weak....
....MUCH MORE
USD/JPY currently 156.31 with the Nikkei down 1,072.68 (-1.67%), outperforming the KOSPI, down 3.4%
Here's the last month of the currency pair via TradingView:
