In an extremely rare bilateral move, the US and Japan have intervened to shore up the Japanese yen, which has been steadily losing value and sliding towards a 40-year low. In truth, there wouldn’t have been much point in denying it – a Reuters photo showed a memo on US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Beasant’s desk with the simple instruction “To Do – Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) 5-10 billion.” Such a move would push bond prices down and increase yields and interest rates at a time when the US national debt has reached almost unimaginable levels. Government urgings aside, Article 589 of the Japanese Civil Code mandates agreed interest rates between lender and investor, which gives the government some control over where the yen resides. The fact that borrowed Japanese money is vital to the American economy and its withdrawal would be something of a nightmare gives the Japanese, despite the seemingly moribund economy, considerable leverage.