Princes of the Yen: Japan's Central Bankers and the Transformation of the EconomyThis eye-opening book offers a disturbing new look at Japan's post-war economy and the key factors that shaped it. It gives special emphasis to the 1980s and 1990s when Japan's economy experienced vast swings in activity. According to the author, the most recent upheaval in the Japanese economy is the result of the policies of a central bank less concerned with stimulating the economy than with its own turf battles and its ideological agenda to change Japan's economic structure. The book combines new historical research with an in-depth behind-the-scenes account of the bureaucratic competition between Japan's most important institutions: the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan. Drawing on new economic data and first-hand eyewitness accounts, it reveals little known monetary policy tools at the core of Japan's business cycle, identifies the key figures behind Japan's economy, and discusses their agenda. The book also highlights the implications for the rest of the world, and raises important questions about the concentration of power within central banks. |
Contents
ListofTables andFigures Preface | |
Acknowledgments | |
Japanese Lesson | |
The Total War Economy | |
An Economy at | |
The Alchemy of Banking | |
The Economic High Command | |
The First Bid for Central Bank Independence | |
How to Prolong a Recession | |
The Battle of the | |
At the Trigger of the | |
The Princes of the | |
The Goal of Monetary Policy | |
The Return of U S Style Capitalism | |
Another Miracle in the Making | |
The Asian Crisis and the Central Bankers | |
Japans First Bubble Economy | |
The Ebb and Flow of the | |
Credit Bubble and Bust | |
More Power to the Princes | |
The Revival of the Reichsbank | |
Japanese FiscalandMonetary Policiesin the 1990s Notes | |
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allocation argued Asian asset prices bad debts bank credit Bank of Japan bank’s bankers banking system bond boost borrowing bubble Bundesbank bureaucrats central bank companies corporate countries created credit controls credit creation credit crunch crisis deflation demand deposit deputy governor deregulation economic growth economic structure economic system economists exchange rate firms fiscal policy foreign exchange Fukui funds GDP growth German goal highpowered money Ichimada implement increase independent industries inflation interest rates investment investors Japan Law Japan official Japan’s economy Japanese Kinyū land prices liquidity trap loan quotas longterm Maekawa managers Mieno minister Ministry of Finance monetary policy money supply neoclassical economics Nichigin Nihon Keizai Shinbun Nikkei nominal GDP Okina percent politicians postwar princes production purchasing power quantitative easing real estate recession recovery Reichsbank Sasaki sector shareholders shortterm structural reform Sumita target Tokyo Toshihiko Fukui transactions U.S. dollar wartime Werner window guidance