Financial Times (September 15)
“Credibility is the most precious resource a Treasury secretary has” and Scott Bessent’s has gone up in flames. “For reasons even his defenders find hard to explain, Scott Bessent has been on a credibility-spending spree. Bessent told the currency markets last week that he was ‘the house’ and warned that nobody should bet against him. But the bond markets did and he lost. What weight will traders attach to his next pronouncement?”
Tags: Bessent, Bet, Bond markets, Credibility, Currency markets, Defenders, Lost, The house, Traders, Treasury secretary, Warned
Fortune (August 15)
“The first U.S.-Japan joint intervention in three decades aimed at boosting the yen has come and gone without doing much to ease anxiety in currency markets.” In fact, it may have heightened concern. A recent note from Yardeni Research captured this sentiment. “The financial system right now looks like a giant Jenga tower with the yen as a load-bearing piece.”
Tags: Anxiety, Boosting, Concern, Currency markets, Financial system, Japan, Jenga tower, Joint intervention, Sentiment, U.S., Yardeni Research, Yen
Washington Post (June 20)
As the Federal Reserve moves closer to an eventual unwinding of its massive quantitative easing program, the dollar looks poised to gain, disadvantaging U.S. exports. “For investors around the world, the great unwinding has begun, with sharp swings in different world bond and stock markets as money is shifted in response to the likelihood of higher interest rates and possibly stronger economic growth in the U.S. Currency markets are moving too – and it may mean a further drag on U.S. exports that are already stuck in neutral.”As the Federal Reserve moves closer to an eventual unwinding of its massive quantitative easing program, the dollar looks poised to gain, disadvantaging U.S. exports. “For investors around the world, the great unwinding has begun, with sharp swings in different world bond and stock markets as money is shifted in response to the likelihood of higher interest rates and possibly stronger economic growth in the U.S. Currency markets are moving too – and it may mean a further drag on U.S. exports that are already stuck in neutral.”
Tags: Bonds, Currency markets, Exports, Fed, Quantitative easing, Stocks, Swings, U.S., Unwinding
