The sadness of the Japanese tragedy struck me today in an article 'Yen Climbs to a Record Against Dollar*.' The yen got to a low of 76.32 Yen for a dollar on Wednesday. The previous high was within 0.25 of 80 yen per dollar. In other words, the Yen was more dear in dollars than it had been since WWII. It took more dollars to buy them. This suggests that the Japanese were selling their dollar assets in a time of crisis to buy things at home; this brought home to me their troubles and struggles.

*Wall Street Journal, page C1 March 17, 2011.