You write:
>In general, the Japanese fund managers seemed more thoughtful than the
>US ones (although this may just be my own prejudice showing). At any rate,
>they seemed to ask more searching questions, and to understand the
>underlying economics of banking a lot better. Seeing as several of these
>people were (identically) the same ones who had been lending officers
>during the 1980s, I tend to think that there must have been more to the
>banking crisis than merely incompetent lending.
My idle suspicion is that US capitalists recognised they were up against an integrated economy, which afforded Japanese capital cooperative advantages which the Anglo-American model explicitly disallowed their Yank counterparts.
And I believe I'm not alone in suspecting that the Anglo-American brigade might one day turn out to inhabit very small glasshouses indeed when they venture to lecture others on the systemically induced generation of huge bad debt.
As for underconsumption problems - well, mebbe Japanese consumers just stopped buying and started saving because the opening salvo of Anglo-Saxon-style 'transparent liberalisation' 'reforms' made 'em justifiably nervous about their future?
Waddya reckon?
Cheers, Rob.