Okay so the US doesn't like something about how Japan's economy was doing in the 90s, what was the beef? I know Japan was manufacturing a ton of stuff, but I thought the US wanted consumer products manufactured overseas.
So they're not happy with this, so they do a run on Japan's currency. What does this mean? Like how do they do it?
The run on the currency causes the value of the Yen to go up. This is bad for some reason, even though your currency is worth more? Like can't you get more for a Yen? But clearly it's bad because it destroyed their economy, I'd like to understand why or how.
Because right now the best I was able to explain it to someone was "America did some money magic bullshit and destroyed Japan's economy", but I would like to be able to answer some follow up questions.
It has a very real exchange value by virtue of the fact that it is used as a means of exchange, no?
This is similar to how a word gains it's meaning from how it is used. Just as the meaning of a word is not contained in the physical sound, the value of a $1 note is not contained in it's paper (if it were we'd be discussing it's use value, perhaps as tinder).