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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (2982)	1/23/2001 2:29:48 AM
From: Yorikke	Respond to of 3536

Bankruptcies rise 23% [in Japan], leaving record debts The number of corporate bankruptcies jumped 23.4 percent to 19,071 in 2000, with liabilities left by the bankrupt firms reaching a new postwar high, Teikoku Databank said Friday. japantimes.co.jp Total liabilities surged 77 percent to 23.99 trillion yen, surpassing the 20 trillion yen mark for the first time and far exceeding the previous record of 14.38 trillion yen set in 1998, the private credit research agency said. The number of bankruptcies marked the first year-on-year rise in two years and was the fourth largest in the postwar period. The data covered bankruptcies with liabilities of 10 million yen or more. Teikoku Databank attributed the increase in liabilities to a series of large-scale bankruptcies in such firms as life insurers, listed nonbank financial firms and major companies in the distribution sector. Failures of listed companies came to a record 12 cases, topping the previous record of 11 cases in 1965. Of the 12, eight firms listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange went bust, matching the previous record in 1997. Among the eight firms were retailers Nagasakiya Co. and Sogo Co. as well as nonbank financial firms Nichiboshin Ltd. and Life Co. Recession-induced bankruptcies totaled 14,372 cases, a record high in the postwar period. The ratio of such failures hit a new postwar high of 75.4 percent, exceeding the previous record of 72 percent set in 1999. In December alone, the number of corporate bankruptcies rose 0.2 percent from a year earlier to 1,550 for the 14th consecutive monthly increase, with liabilities jumping 111.9 percent to 831.9 billion yen, Teikoku Databank said. "Looking ahead, consumer spending is slack and intensified deflationary trends are observed with slow demand and sharp price falls amid cutthroat competition," Teikoku Databank said. "Reflecting these trends, the number of companies on the verge of collapse is on the rise as an increasing number of companies are faced with a sharp fall in sales and difficulties repaying their debt. "The number of corporate failures is likely to increase further toward the end-of-fiscal year month of March." The Japan Times: Jan. 20, 2001 (C) All rights reserved

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (2982)	1/29/2001 10:29:46 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3536

Soros says US is already in a slump thetimes.co.uk FROM GARY DUNCAN, ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT, IN DAVOS THE United States’ rapid economic downturn has probably already tipped it into recession for the first time in a decade, George Soros, the financial speculator, said yesterday. The comments by the Hungarian-born financier shattered a comfortable consensus among the world’s corporate and political leaders at the World Economic Forum. With few exceptions, the ministers, senior officials and corporate executives gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos have predicted that while the American economy is slowing sharply, it should escape recession. Their confidence has been underpinned by their continuing faith in the ability of Alan Greenspan, the US Federal Reserve Chairman, to stave off recession with aggressive cuts in American interest rates. Mr Soros challenged this assessment. “Most likely, we are in recession right now,” he told participants at the forum. His comments came as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate-setting open market committee begins its latest meeting today. After a surprise move to cut US rates by half a percentage point at the beginning of the month, it is widely expected to order another half-point cut as it strives to give fresh momentum to America’s previously unstoppable expansion. Mr Soros suggested, however, that the Fed may already be too late to forestall a recession. “The Fed is aggressively reducing interest rates,” he said. “I don’t know how much they need to move. They don’t know how much they need to move.” He said he was “pretty convinced” that, if anything, the powerful US central bank, helped by “a great deal of freedom to move”, would do too much rather than too little in response to the threat of a US crisis. “They are more likely to overshoot,” he said. “They are determined to do whatever is necessary.” Mr Soros added that he was concerned about how the global financial system, and Asia in particular, might weather a deep American slump. He shared other participants’ pessimism about the economic outlook in Japan. “Obviously the Japanese system is sick,” he said. “They are regressing again. The banking systems in Korea, Thailand and Japan are not in good shape.” The financier, whose speculative attacks were instrumental in Britain’s forced ejection from the European exchange-rate mechanism in 1992, offered a more positive assessment of prospects in Europe, however, where he expected that structural reforms in key countries such as Germany, tax reductions being made this year and a lesser direct involvement by ordinary citizens in the stock market would mean a less pronounced slowdown than across the Atlantic. Yet he also sounded a note of caution to European policy-makers, who have been celebrating seeing their economies poised to overtake growth in the US. “I do think Europe will be more affected (by the American slowdown) than the authorities reassure us is the case,” he said. Mr Soros suggested that the US downturn could fuel criticism of globalisation. Despite deep Fed cuts in US interest rates, countries in emerging markets could suffer a flight of capital as the world economy suffered knock-on effects from America. After anti-capitalist protests by demonstrators turned violent at the weekend, with more than 100 protesters arrested by Swiss police, Mr Soros said that he shared the view that globalisation raised genuine issues of concern, but he said the methods of those involved in the Zurich clashes were unacceptable. Indeed, the prospect of facing similar actions in Thailand has persuaded Mr Soros to pull out of a visit to Thailand, where he was to have addressed business leaders on Thursday. “I have got a bad cold,” Mr Soros, 70, said. “I have been sniffing all day long and I think I am not in good shape to take eggs and so on. If I were in a good sporting spirit I would go, but I am not feeling so strong.” “We regard Mr Soros as a Dracula — he sucks the blood from the poor. If speculators like him had some ethics in their minds, our situation would not be so bad,” Weng Tojirakarn, one of the protest organisers, said in Bangkok.