> But why does the the yen keep appreciating? The Ronald MacKinnon
> article from the Economist that I posted claimed it is due to "unresolved
> trade disputes" which struck me as being somewhat vague.
Because Japan owns our sorry American asses, that's why. Japan is the biggest single global creditor, to the tune of a trillion euros or so; the US is the single biggest debtor (minus two trillion euros). It's World Systems Econ 101: semiperipheral capital flows to metropoles, while metropolitan commodities flow to the semiperipheries. And don't even get me started on that other metropole, the EU.
-- Dennis