Bessent dares traders to bet against Yen: ‘I am the house now’
“I am the house now, so when we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Japanese, what the Bank of Japan is going to do, what Japanese policymakers are going to do,” Bessent said at a Southern Methodist University event in Texas on Tuesday. “And you can bet against me if you want.”
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The comments were among Bessent’s most strident yet in an extraordinary campaign to bend markets to his will, even in the face of investor skepticism. The former hedge fund executive, who made his name with outsized currency wagers, recently oversaw the first purchases of yen by US authorities in three decades and surprised market participants last month with plans to ramp up buybacks of US Treasuries to restrain a surge in yields. Bessent’s remarks also underscore his unusual level of engagement on economic policymaking in Japan, which is among the world’s largest holders of US debt.
