There are currently a number of ‘currency wars’ in progress this is likely to increase in severity and scope, especially over the next couple of quarters. The Yen can only get cheaper in relative terms to another currency that does not also depreciate, so if one or more of the other majors are playing the same game, there will obviously be zero or at least negligible deltas on those currency pairs – but a great deal of volatility. This is why the smart money is on structured derivatives rather than outright directional trades for those currencies slugging it out.
What surprises me is that while there is a great deal of media coverage on BoJ under directives from the Japanese government to manipulate the Yen, and also of the Chinese doing exactly the same thing, very little makes it into the popular press of Jordan’s antics over at the SNB.
As for your implications of some grand design orchestrated by Invisible Hands for speculative purposes where the many are trapped by the few, the basic realities are far more mundane and boil down to the most fundamental of issues.
The question is largely moot as no single currency or country can be held as a control with respect to any other; they all move in a fluid embrace.
