by Ryan McMaken, Mises Institute:
On February 8, the Japanese yen fell to a 24-year low against the dollar, dropping to 143 yen per dollar. Not much has changed since then with the yen hovering between 142 and 144 per dollar. In September of 2021, one only needed 109 yen to buy a dollar.
Overall, the yen has dropped 21 percent against the dollar over the past year, yet Japan’s central bank apparently has no plans to change course. Nor should we expect it to do so. Japan’s debt load has become so immense that any attempt to raise interest rates or otherwise tighten monetary conditions would prove extraordinarily painful. So, it’s no surprise the BOJ is now positioned to become the world’s last central bank clinging to negative interest rates.
The FBI has downgraded child sex abuse material investigations to focus on prosecuting and inflating the threat of “domestic violent extremists,” according to an FBI whistleblower.
