Yen Carry Trade Blow Up-Financial Equivalent of All-Out Nuclear War – Jim Rickards

• Yen Carry Trade Blow Up-Financial Equivalent of All-Out Nuclear War – Jim Rickards
  by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Saturday Night Post)
  Eight-time, best-selling financial author Jim Rickards is warning of a financial calamity already underway that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is trying to contain.  It is the Japanese yen carry trade where the US Treasury is propping up the yen’s value.  Is the yen carry trade coming to a halt and can it blow up things?  Rickards says, “The answer is yes and yes. . .. Somebody wrote me and asked if the yen carry trade is a big deal?  I wrote them back and said there is nothing bigger.  This is actually the biggest story in the world.”
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  In simple terms, the problem is people have been borrowing at 0% in yen to do deals around the world.  Everything was fine until interest rates in Japan started going up after more than two decades.  Rickards says, “This is the engine of global economic growth.  It has been powering the US economy and the global economy for over 30 years.  What could go wrong?  The thing that could go wrong the fastest is if Japanese interest rates went up. . .. The bank of Japan says it is going to keep raising interest rates.  It’s not going to the moon, but 3% for yen (and Japanese) interest rates is like going to the moon when it’s been 0% for 20 years.  So, now, the yen carry trade is unwinding. . .. The original borrower borrows dollars to pay back the yen loan, swaps the yen and pays back the yen loan.  What if you can’t borrow?  What if the bank says sorry, no soup for you. . .. Now, what do you do if you want to get out of the yen carry trade?  You have to sell assets.  So, you are going to sit there and make a lot less money or even lose money, or you are going to dump assets to get dollars to pay back the yen loan.  They are both bad for the markets.  It you have to sell assets, guess what?  The price goes down, and other people have to sell assets.  The next thing you know it’s a stampede, and everyone is running for the exit.  This is not a few investment banks on Wall Street or a few hedge funds.  This is the whole world getting out of the leveraged exchange rate engine that has been running the world for 30 years.  That is the financial equivalent of all out nuclear war.”
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  Rickards goes on to explain, “Japan is the number one holder of US Treasuries.  They have been selling Treasuries to get dollars to buy yen to prop up the yen.  What happens when you sell Treasuries?  US interest rates go up.  Do you think the Trump Administration or Secretary of the Treasury want US interest rates to go up? . . .. Treasury Secretary Bessent called Japan and said hold on to your Treasuries.  We will give you all the dollars you need with a swap line with the Federal Reserve.  So, what we are doing is the US is using dollars from the Fed to prop up the yen.  So, the Japanese do not have to raise interest rates.  So, the carry trade does not unwind.  So, the markets don’t collapse. . ..  It is extremely dangerous . . .. You are trying to defend an exchange rate that probably can’t be defended, and it is just a matter of time before it breaks.”
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  Back in 2016, long before the central banks were buying gold hand over fist, Rickards told people to buy gold in his best-selling book “The New Case for Gold.”  Back then, gold was a little more than $1,300 per ounce.  With the price down to around $4,300 per ounce today, that looks like it was very good investment advice.  We are nowhere near the high for gold, and Rickards predicts, “I think it’s going to the moon.  When I say the moon, I mean $10,000 per ounce.  We have had our correction. . .. We are now heading back up again, and it’s going to happen very quickly.”
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  On the midterms in November and Trump stopping the voter fraud by Democrats, Rickards says, “Things are going to get rough.  It’s already in the works.  You can see it coming.  Look at “Act Blue.”  Turns out it was a total fraud.  They were taking foreign money, which is illegal.  They were raising billions of dollars, but they were doing it completely illegally.  They are under investigation, and their board has resigned and ran for the hills. . ..  You take Act Blue and Southern Poverty Law Center off line and that is what the Trump Administration has done, that is billions of dollars the Democrats cannot get their hands on. . .. In the midterms, the Republicans will spend $500 million and have an army of 500 lawyers fanning out all over the country.  They are not going to wait until after the election to stop fraud.”
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  The Trump Administration will also stop the mail-in ballot fraud through the US Postal Service. . .. The US Postal service is going to save the day by tracking every single piece of mail (and mail- in ballot.)

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