Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Dancy who wrote (5247)	7/22/1998 3:53:00 PM
From: Michael Sphar	Respond to of 9980

Amid all this Japanese hang wringing two thoughts came to me. The formost being that just perhaps Rubin is taking an opportunity to lets just say "set up" the Japanese economic mismanagement as a potential explanation for future bad economic tidings in the US. The other thought was that perhaps the Japanese are starting to reap the bitter fruits of seed sown over the years by Japanese exclusivity and predatory economic practices. I cannot recall any other single national image so mistrusted, feared or disliked by so many ordinary people as that generated by discussions of Japanese international business practices. Throughout my business travels in Asia this was a common thread. Perhaps these conversations were patronizing to me as an American but I think there was a sincerity to it. Some other thoughts, surely to get me in trouble, again<g>: The cultural/national purity that exists in Japan is an obvious product of their island nation. National heritage is almost as compelling as religious beliefs. And in Asia there seems to be a prevalence of the belief in preserving national blood lines. I have noticed this especially among the Chinese and Japanese but believe this to be true of other nationalities as well. Now to lump all Europeans together as is not exactly going to win one lots of friends and respect say in the an English pub, but I think there is perhaps a higher level of inter-national co-mingling among the European nationalities than there is among the Asian countries. The world grows smaller daily. The use of the US dollar as a common currency is quite significant. I've spent US dollars in many different countries. The clerks and business owners seemed all too glad to take our dull looking greenbacks in exchange for their goods. Clearly the dollar fills a gap that is missing from the world economic stage but it too is a fiat currency, and subject to forces which cause inflation and deflation, who remembers the days of petro-dollars ? The world marketplace depends on the world consumers. But most of the consuming world is paid at what would be starvation wages in the US. Now things have progressed dramatically in many countries over the past 25 years or so, but still there's a tremendous number of people willing to work a month for $50 US. With salaries so low, is it any wonder that commodity price declines occur ? And just so I don't leave anybody out, how come a PC costs so much more than a TV, huh ? I never quite bought into that, even thought I worked at Intel for maybe 8 years. If you take a TV apart there seems to be as much or more hardware junk inside it as you might find inside a PC. How are all those $50US/month Chinese and Indian consumers ever going to afford one ? There, that outta do it.

To: Joe Dancy who wrote (5247)	7/22/1998 5:05:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Respond to of 9980

Joe, Thanks for the interesting links. I found one of them most interesting. Enough so to duplicate below. I edited it slightly to keep it on point. The significant point being this, Japanese government report, appears to mimic a lot of US views. Because of the Asian crisis, I realize that Japan is/was a lot more socialistic than I previously understood it to be. MikeM(From Florida) _______________________________ Japan urged to scrap outmoded management to buoy economy By Joji Sakurai / Associated Press TOKYO -- Key pillars of Japan's economic model are collapsing and industries must make dramatic changes to lift the economy out of recession, the government said Friday. In a grim report, the Economic Planning Agency said Japan's economy is "stagnating" and that time-honored practices such as lifetime employment and seniority-based promotion are not working. The annual report said that to increase productivity, companies need more flexibility in hiring and firing practices, and that businesses must become more accountable to their shareholders. Seniority-based promotion and cozy corporate ties between related firms will not promote growth in important new fields such as software development, the report said. As Japan's recession deepened and the number of bankruptcies increased, more and more companies heeded the call to restructure. But the government must do its part as well by carrying out further deregulation and implementing major financial and tax reforms, the report said. Friday's report marks a departure from last year's "white paper" on the economy, which stated that Japan was on track for solid recovery and that injections of public spending were no longer needed. The glummer assessment this year follows the government's acknowledgment in June that the economy has slipped into recession after several years of sluggish growth. The report also cited huge bad loans and an ill-timed government decision to raise sales taxes last year as causes of Japan's problems. The agency called for quicker action to write-off banks'non-performing loans and increased efforts to shore up Japan's welfare programs and underfunded social security system. "Although these reforms involve a certain degree of pain, they are imperative for the future of Japan," the report said.