Comments on: FX markets deal Japan another blow

By: TFF

TFF — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:37:01 +0000

As you wish, Greenfelder…

I’m willing to bet that my understanding of Chemistry surpasses your own, however.

By: Greenfelder

Greenfelder — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:15:50 +0000

Oh my God! TFF you really are completely brainwashed by the Journals of Record, their Amen corners and the Bush gang! Jet fuel is like diesel you can put a match out in it! even then it doesn’t burn at anything like the temperature required to melt structural steel and collapse a building neatly into its foundation. You must be reading the New York Times to believe lies like that. No plane or jet fuel ever touched building 7, but it totally collapsed. come on.

By: TFF

TFF — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:20:53 +0000

Greenfelder, the World Trade Center buildings did not collapse from the impact of the airplanes. They collapsed only after the raging inferno of burning jet fuel melted the support columns — even then, it took a while.

By: Greenfelder

Greenfelder — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:36:55 +0000

Not one Japanese Skyscraper collapses after a 9.0 quake but 3 Trade Center buildings collapse neatly into their foundations? Garbage!

By: Elektrobahn

Elektrobahn — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:26:13 +0000

yenguy: Speculators are driving the Yen stronger. G7 intervention will cause them serious losses. If that’s your idea of a bail-out, you better go back to school.

Felix: A Tobin tax? You can’t be serious.

By: Greenfelder

Greenfelder — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:41:05 +0000

The moderation of these comments is clearly politically motivated and geared towards squelching any criticism of the mythical “free press” and all the corporate military-industrial lies it allows into the first draft of history. I hope the New York Times vanishes into the dustbin of journalistic history where it belongs. Moderators hands off the comments section!

By: Radelta

Radelta — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:00:36 +0000

Felix I hope you lose your job over your other article on japan. You are truly one heartless person

By: nicfulton

nicfulton — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:23:56 +0000

Felix – if a Tobin tax were adopted, the amount of currency trading would likely be reduced, since it hits hardest against speculators. This would in turn hit those service providers to the currency trading industry. One of the biggest which is your employer. Not sure you need to disclose this, as your employment-oriented vested interest might be to resist a Tobin tax. But a related consideration nonetheless.

By: Tseko

Tseko — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:21:38 +0000

And where is the evidence to support such a conclusion?

By: dedalus

dedalus — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 08:59:38 +0000

I saw that the Yen had rallied about 400 pips on the open. But it looked like it gave back most of that gain by the time the Nikkei opened 2 hours later.

I agree with the Reuters article that liquidity is worsening. The liquidity in the CME’s JPY futures contract has definitely gotten much worse this week.

imho one problem is the fact that Bloomberg’s quote for the 3-month JPY forward bears little resemblance to the actual price at which trades are occurring. This may be a sympton of the illiquidity or it may be partly the cause.

Perhaps the volatility of JPY forwards is due to the BOJ’s three recent interventions.

Or, more sinisterly, the forward’s volatility is due to banks (like UBS) misreporting their prices to the BBA and to Bloomberg (like they misreported Libor in Fall 08).

At any rate the volatility of JPY tenors is a good reason for market-makers to be much more cautious — and of course to widen their markets, which adds to volatility, which leads to wider markets, ad infinitum.

Lastly, any problem involved clearing trades during the Asian session may require help from persons in Tokyo (instead of Sydney). And that too is proving problematic.

So, one of the most typically liquid markets in the world is looking like it did during the week Lehman & AIG died. And that’s worrisome.

By: dennis.jung

dennis.jung — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:35:37 +0000

on external hand： yen determined by us economy and yield of tnote
on internal hand： yen determined by capital flows

By: right

right — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:31:34 +0000

I’m not sure why intervention is necessary. The rise is surely short-term and technical and the fundamentals will almost certainly win out sooner rather than later and bring the yen down appropriately on their own. As yenguy says, why would we want to bail out the speculators anyway?

By: yenguy

yenguy — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:38:56 +0000

if g7 steps in and intervenes in fx market, all they are doing is bailing out the speculators who are caught on the wrong side with their carry trades. is this really something g7 should be doing? let the market punish the speculators first. usd/jpy will go to low 70′s and then step in to bring back.

By: paintcan

paintcan — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:37:28 +0000

Japan is a country that has to import its raw materials. A stronger Yen helps Industry rebuild and Mrs. Watanabe buy the lumber and appliances for her uninsured house: only about 14% of property owners seem to hold homeowners insurance.