Oh my, the yen is rising

[Lydia Leftcoast]

above the psychological barrier of 100/dollar. It's at 95-96 to the dollar now, a level it hasn't been at since the early 1990s. :wow:

However, the dollar is rising against the pound and euro. :wtf:

[Zynx]

1. That's due to the specific issues of the Yen carry trade. The Euro and Pound issue is more simple.

People wager the U.S. is a better place to have their money with the world seemingly collapsing around them. Take a look at how hard gold has been hit.

[Bonobo]

2. Shit, Lydia. What does it mean?

You know I just heard that Japan is now scoring like 16th in international test scores, just a notch above USA. What has happened to them?

Who would have thought their recession would have lasted this long? What is it, 15 years now?

Going in Spring. Not looking forward to a strong yen. :(

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Well, for one thing, it means that payments from my Japanese clients will

be worth more in dollars... :-)

Other than that, I think the loss of employment security has caused a lot of social problems that were barely visible before. If you take a kid whose older sibling has found no role in life other than freeter, then you're going to have a kid who is unmotivated in school, assuming no innate intellectual interests.

I've heard reports of discipline breaking down in schools, although I don't know to what extent this is true, whether it means violating some of the pickier "kousoku" on hairstyles or knifing teachers or somewhere in between.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. They're saying it's because Japanese banks mostly avoided

the derivatives debacle. Of course, a strong yen makes it harder for Japanese exporters to compete. I wonder when the Bank of Japan/Ministry of Finance is going to intervene?

[Warpy]

4. Have you looked at the Loonie lately?

After months of near parity, it's been in the $1.25-$1.30 to the loonie range for the last couple of days.

I guess it pays to have your banking shit together, eh?

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Could you elaborate?

The Loonie, just like nearly every other major currency these days, even the Swiss franc, has gone down big time against the yen. In Canada's case (and Australia's), a large part of the decrease has been due to the decline in the prices of metals and raw materials.

[Warpy]

6. This widget keeps a running daily graph

[girl gone mad]

7. I bought in a couple of weeks ago..

but didn't expect this sudden of a climb. I tried to convince someone here to sell gold and buy yen, but he wasn't hearing it.