Word: yen
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...then tackled the issue of the yen's position in a global economy increasingly dominated by the dollar and euro...
...years, making European vacations and Japanese electronics cheaper, while at the same time attracting foreign capital to the U.S. stock-and-bond markets by the trillions. Although the dollar's decline amounts to only 3% against major currencies like the euro, it is off nearly 15% against the Japanese yen since March...
...spooked too. Foreigners have been taking the dollars they get as payment for goods and services and investing them in U.S. stocks and bonds. If the dollar continues to droop, they may be tempted to move their cash to currencies on the upswing, like the euro and, especially, the yen. That would drive the U.S. market lower. The more apocalyptic bears fear something worse. Because foreigners hold almost 40% of U.S. Treasury securities, any pullout would risk a spike in interest rates that would ultimately slaughter the bull market...
Since the U.S. economy remains basically strong, Treasury officials say the rising yen is Tokyo's issue. And they've convinced Japan's major trading partners of that, not to mention the government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Everyone, that is, except Masaru Hayami, chief of Japan's central bank, who late last month got into a public spat with Tokyo's powerful Ministry of Finance because the Bank of Japan refuses to lower interest rates or print money to bring the yen back to earth...
...Japan, a weak dollar and a powerful yen are a decidedly mixed blessing. Yen strength amounts to a vote of confidence in the Japanese economy, which, after a decade-long slump, is at last beginning to show signs of life. The renewed activity has sucked in U.S. and other foreign money for 33 of the past 35 weeks, driving up the Nikkei stock market average some 25% so far this year. The problem is that Japanese corporate profits are also heavily dependent on exports, which can rapidly become too expensive for foreign consumers as the yen appreciates. Indeed, big exporters...