New Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda held nothing back, much to the global currency market’s surprise, by kicking off his inaugural two-year term with an aggressive new easing program designed to combat more than 15 years of deflation in the world’s third-largest economy. The key measures of the BoJ’s “Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing” program include a doubling of bond purchases to 7-trillion yen (US$75b) a month and an expansion of purchases of other assets, including exchange traded funds and real-estate investment trusts. The central bank will end up buying more that +70% of newly issued ... (full story)