Where yen goes, so goes U.S. - and here's why

Tracking the course of the yen is becoming a favorite game thesedays among economists and other types who follow the currencymarkets.

Never mind the dollar's almost 30 percent drop against themark, the franc, the lira and a host of other currencies since lastSeptember.

It's the level of the yen - and all that means for the health ofthe economy of the United States' major competitor - that countsamong avid watchers.

Here, then, pronouncements on that subject by two people who canreasonably claim to have a top-notch handle on the yen's future:Hiroshi Takeuch, chief economist of the Long-Term Credit Bank ofJapan Ltd., and C. Fred Bergsten, director of …