The Real Reason Behind Trump’s Yen Intervention
Aug. 6, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET
nytimes.com/…6/opinion/treasury-yen-trump-currenc…
By Eswar Prasad
Dr. Prasad is a professor at Cornell University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
It’s rare for the United States to intervene in another country’s currency policy. It usually happens because there is a crisis. But in recent cases involving Argentina, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, none of those countries had reached the level of emergency usually required.
In all three the Trump administration has directly supported or offered support for their currencies. Why would the administration do this? After all, it seems risky and expensive to buy another country’s currency or even offer to temporarily swap dollars for that currency, especially one whose value is falling.
None of these actions were born of benevolence. The administration has U.S. economic interests in mind but is also keen to propagate its policies and reward its …More