Japan No Sideshow for U.S. Markets

Thirty-four years ago, a brilliant young hedge-fund manager helped engineer a $1 billion payday for his employer by betting a major currency would be devalued. He made a similar killing two decades later.

When Bessent helped George Soros break the pound on “Black Wednesday” in 1992, he reckoned that the country’s floating-rate mortgages made it politically painful for Britain to raise interest rates to prop it up. Too painful, it turned out.


Japan’s recent intervention to strengthen the yen without raising its own rates got a very rare assist from America. That’s what friends are for, said President Trump.

“They wanted a little bit of help. And we’re always there for Japan. Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor.”

Spencer Jakab Wall Street Journal Aug. 13, 2026

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/japanese-drama-is-no-sideshow-for-u-s-markets-b92be149


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