Product Description

The Bubble Economy tells the story of the greatest failure of Japanese economic management since 1945. In the second half of the 1980s Japan's financial madness and arrogance centered on a booming stockmarket and rocketing land prices, which dragged the solid manufacturing economy into a whirlwind of outrageous speculation. Then the boom when spectacularly bust, leaving in its wake a withered stockmarket, crashing land prices, mountains of bad loans, an economy in recession, and a slew of political and financial scandals, graphically exposing the seedy underbelly of Japan's feudal finance system. The Bubble Economy reveals how Japan is spending the first half of the 1990s paying off these excesses in a process that threatens the world's economies with dire consequences, and questions many of the myths built up around Japanese management, pointing to levels of incompetence never before thought possible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127364 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9789793780122
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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From Publishers Weekly
Japan's recent stock market crash and economic troubles may not portend catastrophe, according to Wood ( Boom and Bust ) in this analysis of Japan's current crisis. The situation will bring needed banking and market reforms, will correct the 1980s ' wildly overvalued assets, will further open Japanese markets to the West and will force the country closer to Western - style capitalism. In the process, however, there are likely to be further devaluations, higher unemployment and possibly serious political unrest. Wood vividly details Japan's feudal structures in banking, insurance, real estate and investment , which upended the world's most impressive economy and brought about the recent scandals. He analyzes the country's international buying sprees, which he views as misconceived, and foresees additional implosions. He is nevertheless optimistic that Japan's effects on the West will be less horrendous than predicted. Wood criticizes current popular notions that Japan's unique culture permits it to play successfully by different rules. This is an important and accessible study.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Right on the Money!
We moved to Japan 6 years ago with only a vague understanding of Japanese political-economy. We ran across Christopher Wood's book at a local bookstore. It was fascinating and has proved to be an astoundingly accurate depiction foretelling the events of today. I picked the book up again today and concluded that, short of having a crystal ball, this guy had to have been the lone voice of common sense and sound reason on the planet at the time he wrote this book. People must have regarded him as an oddity at the time. One wonders where he is now and what he is doing.

Highly recommended reading on Japan's economic plight.
Let's face it, many of the "Japan experts" have totally missed the boat. Mr. Wood's book, published in 1992, was "right on the money" and predicted Japan's current economic plight (although underestimating abit the time it would take to get there). This book provides readers with valuable insights into how the Japanese political economy functions (and doesn't function). By focusing on fundamentals, particularly the banking system, Mr. Wood provides the reader with a framework for analyzing the daily tidbits of information coming out in the press.