Free Republic

ALERT: Yen Plunges Big-Time After Japan Intervenes In The Market Joe Weisenthal Oct. 30, 2011, 9:50 PM After watching its currency hit new post-WWII high after post-WWII high against the dollar, finally Japan has moved to intervene. Here's a chart of the dollar vs. yen via FinViz. As you can see, the dollar has surged against the yen in the past few minutes. The super-strong yen has been a source of major consternation for Japanese exporters, for whom the strong yen has made business difficult. Nintendo, for example, blamed the super-strong yen for a quarterly loss.

Rarely are currency exchange rates as good for the American dollar as that of Asian countries. In Asia, the American dollar carries a lot of clout and with the recent devaluation of the USD; it is a good thing that these countries offer an excellent trip for so little cost to Americans.

Over the past century, a vast movement to liberalize global capital markets has been underway, with the object of increasing capital mobility to the point where sudden shifts in capital flows could have untold consequences, causing exchange rate volatility, disrupting world trade, and creating an artificial need for a common currency. This was seen with the recent implosion of the US housing market and its profound impact on foreign stock exchanges. Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all initiated bailouts comparable to our own. In effect, the present crisis was created for the intended solution -- a global currency that would...

At his confirmation hearings last week, Tim Geithner branded China a currency manipulator. This is a designation that the Bush Treasury Department never formally affixed to the Chinese. It may signal a nerve-wracking shift in how the United States manages its most pivotal relationship. Geithner is correct that China manipulates its currency. What’s more, this manipulation is arguably the most important cause of the financial crisis. Starting around the middle of this decade, China’s cheap currency led it to run a massive trade surplus. The earnings from that surplus poured into the United States. The result was the mortgage bubble....

The plunge in the dollar has turned normally calm voices strident and fearful. A weak currency, they say, spells catastrophe for the U.S. economy. But like much conventional wisdom, this isn't true. Nor is it true that the dollar, to use one favorite recent word, has "collapsed." You wouldn't know it, however, from recent headlines. This week's Economist magazine, known for its cool-headed discussion of economic events, has this on its cover: "The Panic About the Dollar." Others see in the dollar's slump a metaphor for America's future — one of decline and waning influence in the world. To be...

Americans paused at Thanksgiving yesterday for the traditional annual audit of their blessings. If they'd been listening at all closely to the morose lucubrations of their opinion leaders, however, it would have been pretty slim pickings. The pundits have finally run out of bad news to report from Iraq, where, unmolested by the morbid fascination of misery-seeking reporters, the locals actually seem to be belatedly enjoying the first fruits of their liberation. So attention has turned again, as it has tended to do from time to time these past 50 years, to the inevitable collapse of the American economy. The...

The dollar fell to a record low versus the euro on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by an aggressive half a percentage point to prevent the U.S. economy from weakening further on turmoil in the credit and housing markets. Policy-makers reduced the benchmark lending rate between banks by the most since November 2002 to 4.75 percent, the lowest level since May last year. It was the first rate cut in four years. The Fed also lowered the discount rate it charges for direct loans to banks by a half-point. Traders sold the dollar as lower...

TOKYO, May 1 (Reuters) - The dollar struck a seven-month low against the yen and a one-year low against the euro on Monday, extending a slide as the Federal Reserve appears set to soon end a two-year run of credit tightening. A renewed focus on U.S. deficits after last month's meeting of Group of Seven industrialised powers, worries about Iran's nuclear ambitions and deteriorating technical signals have pummeled the dollar across the board. The yen gained across the board on solid buying by foreign hedge funds and investment banks, while some Japanese players squared positions heading into the country's Golden...

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar hit a 27-month high against the yen on Monday and edged closer to recent two-year lows versus the euro and sterling as greenback buying on yield advantage gathered momentum after a long U.S. weekend. In the absense of major data on Monday, investors, coming back from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, pushed the dollar higher in anticipation of further rises in U.S. interest rates. The euro kept a low profile as investors awaited European Central Bank speakers including chief Jean-Claude Trichet ahead of a widely-expected 25 basis point rate hike this week. But the outlook beyond...

Technical Overview · British Pound Heads To 1.7000· Swiss Franc Sees 1.3500 In Its Future· New Zealand Dollar Fails To Capture .6900 Traders Corner:Reality or wishful thinking, it’s a very delicate balance when it comes to trading. As a trader I always learned not to let the wishful thinking cloud my judgment. I never let such notions as hopes and dreams distort the reality of the market. At one point when I found myself grasping at straws in a sinking trade I realized that no matter what I think, wish or hope, the market will do what its need to...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar clung close to a two-year high against the euro and a 27-month peak versus the yen on Tuesday as more investors flock to the U.S. currency for its widening yield advantage. The yen came under pressure after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a rare comment on central bank policy, saying it was too early for the Bank of Japan to end its ultra-loose "quantitative easing" until deflation is defeated. Koizumi's remarks on Monday added to a chorus of government officials calling for the BOJ, which gained political independence just in 1998, to work with...

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar remained firm on Tuesday near this week's three-month highs against the euro and 16-month peaks versus the yen as a Federal Reserve official joined the hawkish chorus on U.S. interest rates. The dollar also hit a two-month high against sterling and against an index of major currencies as investors priced in prospects for the Fed to press ahead with its 15-month credit-tightening campaign. Atlanta Fed President Jack Guynn told Reuters in an interview on Monday that the Fed's tightening campaign still has "a ways to go" before completion. Analysts said strong data, equity inflows and...

...The link between the yuan and the dollar worked beautifully for both China and the U.S. for a decade. The yuan's dollar-linked stability gave China an investment boom that lifted millions of Chinese out of poverty and created a growing consumer market.... Low-income Americans benefit by being able to buy low-cost necessities with Made-in-China labels at their local Wal-Marts. America's low unemployment and vigorous growth signal that the China trade has not inflicted the damage in broad terms the protectionists claim.... Yet increasingly they are political competitors as China grows richer and more inclined toward making its weight felt internationally....

...[S]ome U.S. political leaders claimed a victory in the campaign to blame Chinese "market manipulation" for external imbalances facing the U.S..... The inherent conflicts in the phrase ("socialist market economic system," and "market supply and demand" with capital controls and a managed float) highlight both the central economic challenges facing China and the need for a comprehensive U.S. economic policy toward China. On the one hand, China's hesitancy to give up its currency stability is understandable. Currency stability contributed to confidence by foreign investors to build capacity in China and stimulated an export-led surge.... On the other hand, the currency...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The euro fell below $1.20 for the first time in 10 months on Friday as traders bet that euro zone interest rates will eventually be cut and make the dollar an even more attractive destination for investors. A combination of Sweden's central bank slashing interest rates this week and the Bank of England moving closer to lowering rates has thrown the spotlight on the European Central Bank. ECB officials have held firm that current rates at 2 percent are appropriate, but political pressure has mounted on the euro zone's central bank to do something about the region's...

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar hit a nine-month high against the euro on Monday, extending recent gains made after upbeat U.S. data and comments from Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan fanned expectations of more U.S. interest rate hikes. Finance ministers from the world's rich nations (G8) during their weekend meeting in London kept up pressure on China to move toward more flexible exchange rates, but produced no clues as to the timing. Following last week's better-than-expected U.S. trade data and Greenspan's comments that the economy was on a "firm footing," the market is looking to see if this week's figures...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The euro hit an 11-month low against the yen on Tuesday, hurt by a bleak economic outlook for the euro zone and remarks by the European Central Bank chief which the market saw as a hint of interest rate cuts. The ECB will do "all it can" to reinforce consumer and business confidence, and economic reforms are fundamental to boost euro zone growth, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in a discussion among central bankers from China, Europe and Japan in Beijing. "Trichet suggested that maybe he has to do something about interest rates," said a trader at...

The under-fire euro fell further on Wednesday, slumping to an eight-month low against the US dollar amid rumblings over the long-term future of the eurozone. The fresh selling was prompted by a report claiming that Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, and Axel Weber, the president of the Bundesbank, were present at a meeting at which the possible break-up of European Monetary Union was discussed. The German Bundestag is also said to have commissioned a report on the legal repercussions of a country wishing to leave the EMU. Germany’s finance ministry labelled the talk “absurd”, while Mr Eichel and Mr...

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - The euro dipped sharply on Wednesday on reports that the possibility of a failure of European Monetary Union was discussed at a high-level meeting of German financial officials. A source who attended the meeting last week said Finance Minister Hans Eichel and Bundesbank President Axel Weber were present but that they did not take part in any discussion on the future of the system which gave birth to the euro. The Bundesbank said it would issue an official statement later on Wednesday in response to a report about the meeting in Germany's Stern magazine. Stern said the...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar rallied to a seven-month high against the euro on Monday after a run of surprisingly upbeat data eased worries that the United States may not attract enough capital to fund its huge external deficit. An above-consensus rise in new jobs and retail sales in April and a narrower-than-expected trade deficit in March have fueled buying in the dollar, pushing the single European currency below its major support level this year. "Investors had preferred the euro. But now they are shifting some of their funds back to the dollar," said Takehiko Jimbo, a forex sales manager...

In 1909, President William Howard Taft and his Secretary of State, Philander Knox, came up with a rather ingenious foreign policy strategy whereby they tried to garner the support of nations through financial rather than aggressive means. It was referred to as “Dollar Diplomacy” inasmuch as they believed that money would achieve national goals rather than bullets. In the end, it actually failed, but has subsequently been employed by other administrations. Even President Bush to a certain extent used such a strategy in gaining support for the Iraq War. With the advent of floating exchange rates, and the current level...

Have you checked the value of your stocks or your real estate lately? In euros? Or British pounds? Has it all sadly disappeared seemingly while you were sleeping? Looking at the dire prognostications of currency analysts on television or in the newspapers lately would lead one to believe that all of your assets are evaporating like raindrops on a Phoenix sidewalk in August. Given the depth of the dread, I’m surprised that some of the Wall Street brokerage firms haven’t taken advantage of all this gloom by selling a currency-hedging strategy to consumers that would prevent the disappearance of home...

BARGAIN-HUNTING Britons are expected to travel to the United States this year in record numbers to cash in on the weak dollar. The exchange rate of $1.90 to £1 is the best since September 1992. Speculators believe it could reach two dollars to the pound within days — a level last seen in the 1970s. British holidaymakers to New York and Florida have always enjoyed inexpensive meals out and have regarded cheap trainers and designer clothes as an extra perk. But this year they might invest in more expensive items. A four-bedroom holiday home in the sunshine state of Florida,...

Fact and CommentSteve Forbes, 06.09.03, 12:00 AM ET Deflation: The Fast, Easy Cure The Federal Reserve, alarmed at the relentless downward pressure on business' ability to profitably price its products and services, recently declared its concern about deflation. Our central bankers are casting worried glances at Japan's debilitating deflationary experience of the past 12 years and are anxiously wondering if we're in for the same. The worries of Greenspan & Co. are welcome--but about five years overdue. Our deflation began in the late 1990s, when the Fed inadvertently tightened monetary policy. Commodity prices collapsed, and deflation then began to work...