Word: interesting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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With the exchange rate hovering just below 90 yen to the dollar, and having risen to 87 on Wednesday after the U.S. cut interest rates, the Bank of Japan decided on Friday to cut its benchmark rate to 0.1%. The move was done on a near unanimous vote among policy makers. However, with its overnight rate already at 0.3%, it is unclear what such a small rate cut could achieve...
...over the next year. Intervention, he says, will come at the 85-level, but even then it is difficult to predict what will happen. "What we're seeing is the unwinding of the yen carry trade," says JPMorgan Chase's Sasaki, referring to the practice of buying low-interest yen and investing it in high-yield currencies. "It's a very strong and powerful movement and it's difficult to stop it. I think that Japanese officials understand that and that's why they haven't intervened...
...Calestous Juma, director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Belfer Center, said Holdren's main asset is his interest in using science as a diplomatic tool in our relations with developing countries...
That's because Vilsack - like Obama and his energy-and-environment team - has shown an especially deep interest in climate change. He wouldn't be the first devoted biofuels advocate to change his mind after recognizing they're making climate change worse, not to mention contributing to food insecurity here and food riots in the Third World. In fact, a climate-change task force Vilsack co-chaired for the Council on Foreign Relations recommended that "the United States phase out domestic subsidies for mature biofuels such as conventional corn-based ethanol." That wouldn't go over big in Iowa...
...what has motivated the Europeans to suddenly step forward? "This new European interest is undoubtedly motivated by a desire to work closely with the new Obama Administration," says State Department legal adviser John Bellinger. "It's a courageous step by the Portuguese, however. It's a recognition that governments cannot complain year after year that Guantánamo must close yet not be part of the international solution...