Word: hashimoto
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Tokyo can smell the coffee. Being left off President Clinton's China itinerary appears to have roused the Hashimoto government into finally doing something about its failing economy. Tokyo Thursday unveiled a plan to take control of the country's failed banks and start shutting them down -- a course of action that the U.S. has been pushing urgently. "Our government has been telling Japan they have to get rid of the bad banks to let the good ones prosper," says TIME business correspondent Daniel Kadlec. "Without banks lending money, there can be no economic activity, and Japanese banks haven...
...Office meeting began. The Japanese were still balking. Clinton sat at his desk with chief of staff Erskine Bowles at his side. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and White House economic adviser Gene Sperling discussed whether the President should talk to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. Rubin was off to one side, pacing quietly. Asked for his recommendation, he ran his fingers through his hair, then somberly replied that intervention by itself would accomplish little. What really mattered was concrete Japanese actions. He headed back to Treasury. At 9 p.m., a Rubin aide called the White...
...hours after midnight, Washington time, financial markets opened in Europe. The Fed and the Japanese central bank began buying yen. As traders scrambled to adjust, the yen jumped 5.2% for the day. In Japan an upbeat Hashimoto pledged "every effort" to restore the country's debt-burdened banking sector and "open and deregulate its markets...
Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin and President Clinton see fundamental flaws in a system that has led to banks facing more than $600 billion in bad or doubtful debt. But Prime Minister Hashimoto and top Japanese financial officials are in "stimulus package" mode, not "major restructuring" mode. As one young Japanese entrepreneur told me, if the trade negotiators craft a plan wherein no one is required to take responsibility for the flaws in the Japanese economic structure, "we'll do it." Otherwise, it is likely that nothing much will happen in terms of change...
...comfort in South Asia, whose leaders already know how domino-like recessions can be. First to tumble will likely be Malaysia, which was hoping for a low-interest $1 billion or $2 billion loan from its Far East financier. Fat chance of that now. And Japan itself? Prime Minister Hashimoto easily survived a no-confidence vote Friday -- but when it comes to the elections next month, all bets...