Is Scott Bessent winning the wrong battle in markets?

THE good news for Scott Bessent, the prickly US Treasury secretary, is that he has established control over one of the world’s most challenging financial markets, seemingly imposing his will against the odds where many before him have failed.

The bad news is that this is not at home, but in Japan.

Currency-market specialists are still reeling from the news at the very end of July that the US had, under the direction of Bessent, stepped into Japan’s long-running battle with a worryingly weak yen.