Wow, I just finished watching a NHK World (Japanese TV) special program - "The Rise and Fall of US-led growth". Maybe it will be up on their site later. http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/index.html It was simply unparalleled in its insight and truthful commentary, analysis. It also totally slaughtered the US growth over the last two decades, and concluded that real growth will now happen in the emerging markets and developing nations. Participants were an analyst from Mitsubishi UFJ, an assistant governor of BoJ, Richard Portes - professor of economics at London Business School and Hyun Song Shin from Princeton University. http://www.tlp.org/index.php/Portes,_Richard http://www.princeton.edu/~hsshin/ The analysis and thoroughness of this analysis was simply priceless and perfectly described the "global big picture" and mechanisms, influences towards this "false growth." Personal greed where leader incentives were rewards for inflating and creating new financial products which were highly leveraged, and a financial market reaching four times the "real value" - hyper-inflating assets, and spurring deregulation to make growth faster by calling on "those who are not homeowners to get homes" as put by Bush in the report. It was a highly critical run through all the "shit and greed" leading up to this crisis - including the early 1990s with Clinton. Well, valuable and coherent explanation of the run-up, and frankly a very bleak looking future for the US - although only hinted in the report. Very interesting that this report comes from Japan, who hold some of the big reserves in the world right now... it will surely have a huge impact on business and globalization influences in the time ahead.
Wow, I just finished watching a NHK World (Japanese TV) special program - "The Rise and Fall of US-led growth". Maybe it will be up on their site later. http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/index.html It was simply unparalleled in its insight and truthful commentary, analysis. It also totally slaughtered the US growth over the last two decades, and concluded that real growth will now happen in the emerging markets and developing nations. Participants were an analyst from Mitsubishi UFJ, an assistant governor of BoJ, Richard Portes - professor of economics at London Business School and Hyun Song Shin from Princeton University. http://www.tlp.org/index.php/Portes,_Richard http://www.princeton.edu/~hsshin/ The analysis and thoroughness of this analysis was simply priceless and perfectly described the "global big picture" and mechanisms, influences towards this "false growth." Personal greed where leader incentives from rewards for inflating and creating new financial products which were highly leveraged, and a financial market reaching four times the "real value" - hyper-inflating assets, and spurring deregulation to make growth faster by calling on "those who are not homeowners to get homes" as put by Bush in the report. Also Portes described the false trust created through the ratings companies, where they effectively vouched for the financially engineered products, where information and background on the products was hidden or obscured. It was a highly critical run through all the "shit and greed" leading up to this crisis - including the early 1990s with Clinton. Well, valuable and coherent explanation of the run-up, and frankly a very bleak looking future for the US - although only hinted in the report. Very interesting that this report comes from Japan, who hold some of the big reserves in the world right now... it will surely have a huge impact on business and globalization influences in the time ahead. This was shown during the Monday holiday in Japan, and if you have NHK World I would certainly recommend you catch a re-run of this special. I usually watch NKH, BBC, DWelle, CNNI, Bloomberg (various) and some other sources to get my news... it's very helpful to get a more complete picture. I usually watch NKH, BBC, BANDnews (Brazilian), DWelle, CNNI, Bloomberg (various) and some other sources to get my news... it's very helpful to get a more complete picture. If you only watch US-based news, I guess you'd become brainwashed, biased, ignorant pretty quickly - just like with most single-nation news sourcing.
The main title for the NHK special report is "Mechanisms of financial crisis" - and it is just finishing a repeat showing now this minute... I missed the opening minutes the other time around, but got it now...
Another thing that is very characteristic is how transparent the measures in Europe are - while in the US they keep their cards very guarded it seems. Just now, there are full estimates of how and how much the further restructuring will be done and the cost in Europe over the next year. The debate is open to the public and it seems deliberated - thought through. The complete opposite is the case in the US... It seems they are avoiding key issues, and trying to divert attention - delay reactions and are not fully clear as to exactly WHAT they will do, or what effects it will have. There seems little participative debate on how the crisis should be handled in the US - just commentary on what is being done, and what is NOT being done. The outcome for the US is still very murky - and that does not provide any confidence... but that may be just the way they want it. Keeping a lid on things and waiting for developments and the right moment to restructure. That makes me see that some measures are being delayed, and that part of this crisis is being used to the advantage of the US. Well, I don't think it will work well in the long run anyway - but maybe the "decision makers" can get a little out of it - by risking more. Too bad this poker attitude is not one seeking consent or increasing confidence in their capabilities. In short: it seems the financial crisis is actually being attempted to exploit to some extent, by adjusting and waiting out others.
The US is waiting for the commitment of large sums from other countries - and racketing up the rhetoric. Then they are resisting any change to the international system... nice!