First a comment on recent events. The Shrubya is here and he pulled a surprise on Koizumi. Koizumi wanted to put off decision-making til April after he got more data on the loans. Bush is pushing for a decision--declare all of the loans bad and let the Americans clean it up (afterall much of Carlyle Group's future profitability rests on it).
Charles, please point me to info on Carlyle in Japan. I read about their activities in Thailand in "Blowback" but have wondered if they were picking up bargains in Japan. Doing that ole creative destruction shuffle. The Carlyle Group seems like a much better scandal than Enron to me. "You're sons, daughters and dollars: Making the world safe for the Carlyle Group"
ps. Didn't really realize you were in Japan. And Hakkim is in Turkey? Chris is in Russia? This is very exciting.