Bessent blasts Warren’s ‘sciolistic’ letter about yen policy

Published August 29, 2026 7:52pm ET | Updated August 30, 2026 3:57pm ET



Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rebuked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Friday over a weekslong disagreement over the Treasury Department’s decision to execute a joint currency intervention with Japan to support the weakening yen after the currency dropped to a 40-year low at the beginning of August.

Warren sent a personal letter to Bessent on Aug. 14 to press “for more information regarding the Trump administration’s decision to deploy its Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) to boost financial markets and inflate the Japanese yen.” The ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Warren also said then the Trump administration “has yet to provide a detailed justification for its intervention, nor has it officially disclosed how much taxpayer-linked funds were spent purchasing yen.”

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