America's 'weird' and 'unwise' intervention in the Japanese yen: 'The last thing you want is to give markets any kind of reason to ask questions'

sb (Credit: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The U.S. is stepping in to help boost Japan’s yen for the first time in nearly three decades after the currency hit a 40-year low, but the intervention has an unusual feature: instead of selling dollars to buy yen, the New York Fed reportedly sold euros to fund the purchase.

The coordinated move on Friday lifted the yen to 157 to the dollar and marked the first time the U.S. and Japan jointly bought the currency since 1998 during the Asian financial crisis. In 2011, the U.S., alongside the G7, weakened the yen after the Fukushima disaster caused the yen to be too strong, threatening Japan’s export-reliant economy.