> if you actually mean that the US is in a stronger _global_ position viz.
> Japan (though Dennis may contend that one, and I would be inclined to take
> that contention seriously)...
You betcha. The latest figures from the Nomuri Shimbun say that the Japanese postal savings system now has a grand total of 250 trillion yen in deposits sitting around and accumulating interest (up from 200 trillion as late as 1994). That's a cool $2 trillion in rocksolid liquidity, just itching to be spent on Mitsubishi's latest chip technology. I'd note also that Asia does seem to be recovering; Japanese exports to Asia rose for the first time (during the Jan-Mar quarter) after seven quarters of declines. Since the East Asian region does the majority of its trade with itself, this is a sign that the Miyazawa plan and the Japanese bank bailout is starting to work. One should never, ever underestimate the capacity of the total system to use a given crisis as a means to expand in another, completely unexpected direction.
A fancy way of saying, if I were a rentier, I'd dump US stocks and buy Euro/East Asia, pronto.
-- Dennis