Markets paid close attention to a meeting of central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyo., last week for one reason—because Jerome Powell was speaking. The Federal Reserve chairman’s hawkish comments led to a sharp selloff in stocks and a rise in Treasury yields.
But another, less-noticed speaker in Jackson Hole is equally responsible for one of the meeting’s consequences, the fall of the yen this week to a 24-year low of more than 140 yen to the dollar. Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan, stood up from the audience during a panel discussion to share a few words about his own policy direction—one diametrically opposed to the Fed’s.
