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PARIS - There is a neglected political dimension to Japan's new effort to convince Americans and Europeans that a stable exchange system should be invented for the dollar, euro and yen. The German and French governments are sympathetic to the idea, but Americans are dismissive. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi of Japan currently is in Western Europe, officially to acquaint himself with the new leaders of Germany, France and Italy, but indirectly concerned with enlisting their support for a reform of today's floating currency rates.
This initiative is inspired by the double shock felt in Tokyo at the success of the new European single currency, the euro, which began trading Jan. 4. The Japanese had not anticipated the implications of Europe's introduction of a new currency, serving a group of 11 nations nearly as strong in aggregate GNP as the United States, and sounder in terms of reserves and trade deficit (it has none, compared with the more than trillion-dollar U.S. foreign deficit).
The Japanese had taken for granted that the dollar was irreplaceable as the currency of international exchange. For 50 years they had not considered the possibility that the international economy could be denominated in anything except dollars, or world trade - even their own trade - could be conducted in any other currency.
Their second shock was to realize that the yen was now in danger of being crowded off the international stage by the dollar-euro duo, with concomitant damage to Japan's international standing and world influence. The yen might even be challenged in what until now has been generally regarded as a ''yen zone'' in Asia - even though Japan alone produces two-thirds of Asia's entire GNP.
These shocks produced a sharp change in Japanese thinking. One result was Mr. Obuchi's trip to France, Germany and Italy. According to officials in the prime minister's entourage, his message to the Europeans has been the following: Japan wants to work with Europe; Japan is a reliable partner for Europe; Japan has already taken on four times as large a financial role in dealing with the Asian economic crisis as the United States; and Asia itself needs European-Japanese cooperation. The French and Germans have been reminded that their banks have a much bigger and more dangerous exposure in Asian markets than American banks.
The music accompanying the message is that unless the Europeans hang together with Japan, the United States will dominate them both.
The Japanese remind Europeans that when Tokyo a year and a half ago proposed an Asian IMF to deal with the Asian crisis, and offered $50 billion in short-term support while promising another $50 billion in medium and long term investment, the idea was quashed by Washington, which would not accept competition to the Washington-dominated IMF.
They add that IMF remedies may have done more harm than good.
Some Japanese also remark to Europeans that while ''your friend across the Atlantic'' opposes bringing developing countries into international deliberations on the world economy, Japan favors it, and also privileges the social dimension of the Asian crisis in its aid to Japan's neighbors; it is not merely bailing out its own investors.
This change is an important development that Washington and the Europeans would be unwise to ignore. The latter have until now paid relatively little attention to postwar Japan. (The Japanese have not forgotten President de Gaulle's condescending reference during the 1960s to Japan's prime minister as ''a transistor salesman.'')
Washington has for years lectured Tokyo about how to reform the Japanese economy, meanwhile taking for granted that Japan would supply a disproportionate share of international aid and support for American security initiatives, while patiently funding the U.S. deficit. The Japanese have assumed that they had to comply. Now they seem to be thinking again.
They politely say that theirs is not an anti-American message, even though some might think otherwise. They say they merely want international equilibrium. They mention in passing that the United Nations Security Council no longer is representative of international realities, while assuring the Europeans, equally politely, that they are not questioning Europe's two permanent places on the Security Council, and its two vetoes (while Japan has neither).
The Japanese, in short, have been awakened from a long political apathy imposed by their conviction that they have had no alternative to the international role they play, demeaning as it sometimes has seemed - although in their present economic circumstances they are in a poor position to challenge anyone, least of all the United States.
(They tell their European interlocutors that Japan's economy will resume growth next year, and that they are ''determined'' to recover by 2001.)
What the European governments will make of this message from Tokyo cannot yet be known. Its appeal for an implicit alliance against the United States will certainly find some response, but also provides the Europeans with a troubling complication in an increasingly difficult trans-Atlantic relationship. What seems most interesting is that Japan, docile for so long, should be making such an appeal, discreet as it is.
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>Paris, Tuesday, January 12, 1999
>Gore's Aim on Wall Street: Strut the Right Stuff
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>By Ianthe Jeanne Dugan Washington Post Service
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>NEW YORK - When Vice President Al Gore walked into the Four Seasons Hotel
in Manhattan in November for a luncheon in his honor, most of the crowd
stood up and cheered. But in the dark-suited sea of 60 Wall Street honchos,
some faces seemed out of place at a Democratic celebration.
>What on earth was Henry Paulson, the conservative chief executive of
Goldman, Sachs & Co., doing there? Also drawing double-takes was the J.P.
Morgan & Co. chief, Douglas (Sandy) Warner, a well known Republican supporter.
>
>They were invited by Steven Rattner, chief executive of the large
investment bank Lazard Freres & Co., who has been a key force in helping
Mr. Gore introduce his ideas on the economy and finance to a traditionally
conservative contingent that has long associated the vice president with
being more concerned about the environment and technology than high finance.
>
>''The vice president is not as well known in the Wall Street community as
the president,'' Mr. Rattner said. ''But as people have gotten to know him,
they have been impressed.''
>
>As Mr. Gore gears up for his presidential race, he is carefully wooing
Wall Street, a source of not only potential campaign contributions but also
credibility in the corporate world.
>
>Using a trio of investment executives as his tour guides to Wall Street,
Mr. Gore has been getting a crash education in the markets through
breakfast brainstorms, White House coffees, New York jaunts and three
Christmas parties at his home.
>
>Wall Street executives and an aide to Mr. Gore said the vice president in
turn has reached out to Wall Street officials to solicit advice on economic
issues and to review his speeches on business matters. Executives have
encouraged him to tone down the environment rhetoric and promote a broader
theme - the track record of the economy.
>
>Mr. Gore is embarking on what aides call ''economics week,'' in which he
will announce two budget initiatives designed to strengthen the economy,
such as a doubling of the economic empowerment zones that have revitalized
inner-city neighborhoods. An aide to Mr. Gore said the vice president
played a crucial role in shaping the economic policies that fueled growth
in recent years but took a backseat to the president. ''Now, as we head
into 2000,'' the aide said, ''there's a desire to showcase what he's been
doing behind the scenes.''
>
>The lunch at the Four Seasons was one of several ''cultivational''
meetings organized by Mr. Rattner and two fellow executives - John Tisch of
Loews Corp. and the money manager Orin Kramer, an aide to former President
Jimmy Carter who contributed $295,000 in ''soft money'' to Democratic Party
organizations in the 1997-98 election cycle, according to Federal Election
Commission records. Loosely regulated soft money is used by the party for
general purposes, such as issue advertising and voter-registration drives.
>
>The trio has become a quasi ''kitchen cabinet'' working behind the scenes
virtually since Mr. Clinton's 1996 victory to help Mr. Gore meet and
convert key figures on Wall Street. Mr. Rattner, Mr. Tisch and Mr. Kramer
headed fund-raising efforts this month, serving as the New York muscle of a
national effort expected to raise $1 million by the end of January.
Previously, they had helped raise $1 million for Leadership '98, Mr. Gore's
political action committee.
>
>The elbow-rubbing in the upper echelons of Wall Street holds another
opportunity for Mr. Gore: He has been able to size up prospects for
potential key roles in the Treasury Department and the Securities and
Exchange Commission. ''Some of the people involved now could well wind up
with a role in the new administration,'' a source said.
>
>Mr. Rattner, who was once a New York Times reporter, was silent about
public aspirations. Mr. Tisch declined to speculate. Mr. Kramer said
simply: ''Steve Rattner has assumed more than anybody else the role that
was once played by Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs co-chairman
Bob Rubin and Arthur Krim.'' Mr. Krim, the late United Artists chief, was a
major Democratic fund-raiser and supporter.
>
>To pave the way to the financial support, Mr. Gore first had to refashion
his image to appeal to a conservative world in which executives often
supported Republicans whose policies served wealthy investors. That is why
he has emphasized economic growth.
>
>''For a lot of people on Wall Street, the single most important narrow
policy that would be beneficial would be lower capital-gains rates, which
is not something you go to the Democratic Party for,'' Mr. Kramer said.
''But a healthy economy is vital for business. And the economic environment
we've had is something the president and vice president can take credit for.''
>
>Mr. Gore especially turned to these executives in August, when the Russian
debt default threatened to destabilize world financial markets. The vice
president wanted to understand the ramifications, so he invited a Wall
Street ''Who's Who'' to the White House.
>
>Mr. Tisch, Mr. Rattner and Mr. Kramer attended the meeting, along with a
list of powerful executives that included the global investor George Soros;
the Bankers Trust Corp. chief executive, Frank Newman; Lehman Brothers
Inc.'s chief executive, Richard Fuld; and David Shaw, a former Columbia
University computer science professor who runs a major investment pool.
>
>''He asked us for our ideas,'' Mr. Shaw recalled. Mr. Soros suggested a
credit-insurance facility to help combat what several people advised the
vice president was a severe credit crunch. Some suggestions appear to be
echoed in parts of the Brazilian rescue package coordinated by the
International Monetary Fund and actions taken by the Group of Seven
industrialized nations a few weeks later. ''I thought all he was interested
in was science and the environment,'' said Mr. Shaw, who contributed
$220,000 in soft money to Democrats in 1997-98. ''I was surprised when I
met him how much he knew about the economy and finance.''
>
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