“Those earnings are not the achievement of risk takers,” said George Soros. “These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses (Financial Time 24 October 2009).” He is right. The “fat cats” on the Wall Street basically took advantage of the little people [...]

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In the G20 (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, UK, and USA) Summit at Pittsburgh (24-25 September 2009), the 20 largest economies’ leaders finally made one crucial decision – replacing G7, the anachronistic system. More than four months ago, my [...]

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Since a seminal 2001, Jim O’Neill, chief economist of Goldman Sachs began to use the word, BRIC in the research report; today BRIC has turned into an interesting word in the current financial crisis. BRIC, meaning Brazil, Russia, India, and China, met in Yekaterinburg, Russia for a summit on 16 June 2009. BRIC accounts for [...]

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The International Monetary Fund decided to issue its bonds in order to raise money for lenders to combat the global economic crisis after the meeting among the ministerial level of the G7 and G20 (April 25-26).  The IMF sought to raise its lending capacity to $750 billion when the G20 met in London on 2 [...]

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A recent find by the Italian financial police (Guardia Italiana di Finanza) may result in a big jackpot for the Italian government.  Two Japanese nationals (around age 50s), carrying U.S. bonds worth $134.5 billion (including 249 US Treasury bonds worth $500 million each, and ten Kennedy bonds, as well as other US government securities worth [...]

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Following the Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf’s article “Asian Revenge” (Financial Times October 8, 2008, my blog “Asia’s Revenge” Is Nonsense! on 17 November 2008), and his book Fixing Global Finance in 2008, Sebastian Mallaby’s article (title: “Opec has a lesson for China”) began to look at China as scapegoat again in the [...]

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Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) dropped at an annual pace of 12.7% in the fourth quarter (October-December) 2008. For Japan, it is the worst economic performance since the oil shock of 1974. The financial meltdown center – the United States – only declined of 3.8 % and 6.0% in the euro zone. In the front [...]

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Since the financial meltdown on Wall Street, a popular word has suddenly appeared in the Asian media. That is “BRIC”!!! From the Chinese Phoenix TV to the Japanese newspapers, even in the airline magazine such as United Leader’s Review (in Japanese language November 10-January 9 issue, pp. 16-19), published the article about the BRIC. The [...]

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Nobuo Miyamoto, Chairman of Board Regent of Komazawa University, was fired in December. As one of the oldest universities in Tokyo, Komazawa University suffered a $15.4 billion loss from derivatives trading (i.e., currency swaps) that were manipulated by three financial institutions. Recently, both Nanzan University and Aichi University reported losses of 3.4 billion and 2.8 [...]

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When Washington decided to remove North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008, some politicians in Tokyo were not happy including right-wing Nakagawa Shoichi, who was attending the G7 meeting in the USA. For years, Japanese right-wing groups including some politicians and abductees’ families, hijacked the Japanese foreign policy [...]

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A few hours after the House of Representatives passed the $700 billion bailout plan on October 3, 2008, the Pentagon announced weapons sales to Taiwan. The $6.5 billion weapon sales include 30 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters, 330 Patriot missiles, 32 Harpoon submarine-launched missiles, and others. The Pentagon said that arms sales were consistent with [...]

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During the Asian financial crisis in 1998, IMF played a significant role in rescuing Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines by imposing its free economy, free market, and laissez faire propaganda. Where is IMF during the 2008 financial chaos?? It seems to everyone that IMF is running out of ideas too. No one is [...]

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On October 10, 2008, G7 (the world’s leading powers) including Japan met in Washington addressing five points to stabilize the financial chaos. George W. Bush tried to convince members of the G-20 countries including China, which collectively account for 85 percent of the global economy, to help the US. Without significant achievements from these meetings, [...]

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The word APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) has often been heard in the mass media, but a few people have heard of ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting). The difference between ASEM and APEC is “without Uncle Sam” or “with Uncle Sam.” ASEM, which was established in 1996 will have its seventh meeting this year. However, this year [...]

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By now, many people are wondering why did the American government save AIG, but abandon Lehman Brothers. There is one factor that many don’t know- the “China Factor.” According to some Chinese sources, Beijing pressured to Washington to save AIG because a majority of Chinese companies and institutions including insurances, banks, and government, were heavily [...]

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Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, made an interesting proposal to create an Asia Bond to save Asian countries (Financial Times October 6, 2008). According to his plan, Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand, could agree to pool some of their reserves in a certain ratio into a basket of [...]

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During the global financial chaos, Australian Prime Mister Kevin Rudd stated that China could help strengthen global financial stability. “The current instabilities that are concentrated in the U.S. should not be taken as a signal to China to retreat from integration and globalization (Japan Times, October 7, 2008).” Similarly, Larry Summers, the former US Treasury [...]

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While the U.S. spent $700 billion to bailout gamblers in Wall Street, the Chinese government spent much time “bailing out” its reputation in global business as the result of the recent tainted milk scandal. Two different social systems created two different issues for the global community. American financial gamblers dealing in sub-prime loans destroyed global [...]

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The Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf made a strange argument about the recent financial meltdown on Wall Street.  He published a newspaper article entitled “Asia’s Revenge,” accusing China and others of creating what he called a “Bretton Woods II” or “export-led growth” plan in order to seek revenge on the USA because Western [...]

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The year, 2008, is not a usual year for China. Internationally, surrounding countries have been chaotic. To the East of China, people in South Korea have protested imported American beef for months; the new regime in South Korea is in crisis. To its South, people of the opposition party demand that the Thai government resign; [...]

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