US Treasury Secretary Bessent says recent yen moves are contained, not disorderly

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants everyone to know the yen situation is under control. Speaking from Asheville, North Carolina on August 30, Bessent described recent yen fluctuations as “pretty well contained” and explicitly pushed back on characterizations of the moves as disorderly. The dollar was trading near 160.15 yen shortly after his remarks, a level that just days earlier, on August 28, had briefly dipped below the psychologically important 160 threshold. A month after historic intervention Bessent’s measured tone is notable given what happened barely a month ago. On July 31, the US and Japan executed a joint currency intervention to prop up the yen, marking the first time Washington had stepped in to support the Japanese currency in almost three decades. The US deployed an estimated $5 to $10 billion equivalent as part of that effort. Japan’s side of the ledger was considerably heavier: the Ministry of Finance reportedly expended a record $96.4 billion to stabilize the yen through late August. Before the intervention, the yen had been wallowing near a 40-year low around 164 per dollar. The coordinated action managed to push it back to roughly 155, buying Japan some br...