How to tell the New York businessman from the Tokyo businessman

January 19th, 2007 by Joe Jones
Joe

When something goes wrong, the New York businessman gets angry.

Old-Guard Japan
By Stephen Roach | New York

In a stunning blow to central bank independence, the Bank of Japan seriously bumbled its January 18 policy decision. After setting up the markets for the second installment of a “normalization-focused” monetary tightening, the BOJ buckled under political pressure and passed—electing, instead, to keep its policy rate unchanged at 0.25%. While this may end up being nothing more than a painful detour on the road to normalization, the incident speaks volumes about the Old Guard political dominance of Japan’s deeply entrenched LDP ruling party. It is a major credibility blow, with potentially lasting damage to the New-Economy image of a revitalized post-deflation Japanese economy.

But the Tokyo businessman says he’s sorry.

Our Apologies for Erring
By Takehiro Sato | Japan

To date, we had steadfastly maintained our view for an additional rate hike in January. The result, however, was a postponement. We would like to first apologize sincerely to all our readers for having misread the timing of the rate hike.

(Both quotes taken from the always-excellent Morgan Stanley Global Economic Forum)

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  • 4 Responses to 'How to tell the New York businessman from the Tokyo businessman'

    1. Adamu Says:

      Perhaps it would have been inappropriate for them to say that BOJ independence had been “murdered, dismembered and left to rot in front of Shinjuku station.”

    2. Adamu Says:

      Oh, and the best part of the WEF is that they have an RSS feed for easy access from Google Reader.

    3. ROK Drop Links of the Week: 15-21JAN07 at ROK Drop Says:

      [...] Ever wonder what the difference between a New York and Tokyo businessman is?  You can find out here.  [...]

    4. Ken Says:

      Stephen Roach is obviously not a hedge-fund manager. Those guys applauded the decision, all the way to Tantric. Or so I’ve heard.

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