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sanatullo
04-27-2001, 11:48 AM
Here some notes on why Japan could grow very fast. Those notes are derived as a summary from studies of several well known economists. Besides, make sure that summary doesn't belong to me. :)

1. The government did not tap the monetary system as a source of finance for itself. Quite the contrary, monetary seignorate was funneled back through the banking system to increase the flow of bank lending to the private sector.

2. Monetary stabilization with a constant domestic level, aided by a commitment to a stable nominal exchange rate, was the principal mode by which high real interest rates and high real financial growth were secured. The Japanese government was not put into a situation of having to permit high nominal interest rates in order offset high and variable domestic inflation.

3. Only after substantial financial deepening in the nonbank parts of the capital market (growth in primary securities trading, pension funds, and so on) did the authorities substantially loosen (or begin thinking about loosening) their restrictions on the actions of the commercial banks and other depository intermediaries whose deposits were implicitly or explicitly insured by the government.

4. The domestic banking system was never put in the situation of being the principla financial intermediary for significant amounts of net capital flows from abroad,- with the attendant dirict or indirect exchange risks. The limited foreign capital coming into Japan was in the form of direct investment, or more commonly, it took the form of company-to-company licencing agreements.

Chitatel
04-28-2001, 12:27 AM
Hmm, Sanatullo, kajetsya ti zapozdal so svoimi difirambami v adres Japanese Economic Miracle let tak na desyat. Seychas bolee populyaren drugoy topik: What's wrong with Japanese Economy?" :-) Prosmotri ekonomicheskie jurnali za poslednie 5 let.

Cheers

mustafa
04-28-2001, 04:53 AM
True, it was 50's and 60's about Jap miracle, followed by East Asian tigers. Now the issue is depressed interest rates. Probably we can give this case as an example of liquidity trap in the future, refered by Keynes.
This is also the condition of excess demand not meeting excess supply.

Mustafa

JUST'
04-29-2001, 05:25 AM
Japan is in big trouble right now, last decade growth rates slowed down substantially and government is not being able to cope with this problem.

there are some reasons, one of them is in political economy: fast growth in Japan after 1950 was because of a number of institutional innovations, including the main bank system, the keiretsu, and life long working, which provided productivity growth concentrated on manufacturing while sheltered/non-tradable sectors of the economy sustained employment based on low labour productivity.

by the 1990s, these features of the Japanese economy were increasingly seen as obstacles to further development, but very difficult politically to reform.

politicians in Japan don't dare to change and adopt institutional and policies, because of short termism, they are afraid that they will not be at power then.

JUST

JUST'
04-29-2001, 05:32 AM
(Nick Crafts)given that history suggests that it is quite possible to recover from financial crises and macroeconomic policy errors, the biggest threat of slow down come may come from political difficulties that may impede the reform, i.e. the adjustment of institutional arrangements to the new conditions in fast changing world.

SAS
04-29-2001, 08:48 PM
Perhaps new Japanese Prime Minister might cause
for miracle to repeat.
At least, some respected sources say so.

Cheers,

SAS