Chapter 415: The Gathering of Storms
Neon and the United States jointly signed a currency report aimed at further accelerating the openness of Neon's financial market.
What does this mean? It means that Japan will fully integrate with international standards in the financial industry, such as banking, stock market, securities market, insurance, trust, futures, funds, etc.
In simple terms, there will be fewer and fewer restrictions on overseas capital entering Japan in the future.
Perhaps in the future, the number of purely foreign banks in Tokyo will explode in a short period of time.
This agreement on financial liberalization was achieved with the push of multiple parties.
Internally, before the 1980s, Japan's financial system mainly implemented policies such as strong financial administration, indirect finance, and a main banking system.
Professor Yamada had also explained this point to Shirakawa Kaede on the eve of his acquisition of Kitato Bank.
This type of financial system is nicknamed the "escort fleet" model in the industry.
It has provided a guarantee for Neon's economic recovery and development over the past few decades, and also created the myth of "banks never fail" in Neon after the war.
But since the late 1970s, and especially since the 1980s, the international environment has changed significantly.
The United States promulgated the Financial Reform Act to accelerate the opening up of its domestic finance.
At the same time, it also requires other countries to open up their capital markets, and Neon, which has always been in a vassal relationship, is naturally within the target range.
In addition, with the large-scale export of automobiles, home appliances and other electronic products, the strength of domestic enterprises in Japan is also constantly increasing.
As the company's own funds continued to increase, financial institutions were faced with excess funds and a narrowing market.
To put it bluntly, banks have too much money and cannot even lend out loans.
As for why this phenomenon occurs, it is because everyone is not short of money.
The income from the northern rice market has brought a large amount of funds to the company. Even if the funds for various projects such as research and development and investment are taken into account, the money in the company's pocket cannot be spent.
For example, the company under Shirakawa Holdings would not have thought of applying for a bank loan unless it had been buying land in large quantities recently.
So, what should financial companies represented by Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo do? Too much money must be spent, otherwise how can banks make a profit?
Since domestic enterprises do not want loans, then we can invest overseas. There are always enterprises in the vast overseas market that need loans, and even if it is not possible, we can still participate in the investment.
In short, only when the money in the bank flows can it bring profits to the bank.
However, Japan's conservative financial policies became a roadblock. The chaebols also faced various audits when they wanted to go overseas.
As a result, financial institutions represented by chaebols jointly demanded that the government relax financial supervision and accelerate financial liberalization.
This is the reason why the Japanese government signed the financial liberalization agreement in May.
Chaebols, perhaps we can also call them capital.
When their own interests are involved, they will become ruthless and force the government to introduce relevant policies and laws.
However, if financial liberalization has internal causes, it will also have external causes.
As for where the external factors come from, of course it’s the United States.
From the 1970s to the 1980s, the United States experienced two oil crises and fell into severe inflation.
Although Volcker continuously raised the official interest rate after he became the chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1979, the United States completely emerged from the impact of inflation last year.
But the series of measures also brought about another impact, which is the appreciation of the US dollar.
From 1979 to this year, that is, 1984, the US dollar has appreciated by as much as 70%.
The surge in the US dollar is not conducive to US exports, especially manufacturing exports, which have suffered a severe blow.
According to international news that Shirakawa Kaede learned, the US fiscal deficit this year may be as high as 100 billion US dollars.
The main reason for this is the US trade deficit with Japan, Britain, Germany, Gaul and other countries.
There is no doubt that among these countries, Japan has the largest trade deficit with the United States.
According to statistics, Neon's trade surplus with the U.S. is expected to reach more than US$40 billion this year, which accounts for almost 35% of the total trade deficit of the United States.
The long-term trade surplus also caused Neon’s GDP to soar from US$44.3 billion in 1960 to US$1.123 trillion in 1985.
With an increase of nearly 25 times, there is no doubt that Japan's development speed has far exceeded that of the United States in the past 20 years.
Of course, Neon's export trade is also heavily dependent on the United States. This can be seen from the fact that Shirakawa Electric's annual overseas revenue is more than three times that of its domestic revenue.
Because the trade surplus brought in a large amount of tax revenue, the Japanese government's foreign exchange reserves increased significantly.
Most of this money was used to buy U.S. Treasury bonds, so this created an interesting situation.
Because of its fiscal deficit, the United States sold a large amount of treasury bonds and became the world's largest debtor country.
Because of its trade surplus, foreign exchange reserves increased, and most of this money was used to buy U.S. Treasury bonds, making Japan the world's largest creditor country.
Japan, which has always been following behind me, the United States, as a younger brother, is now getting the money earned from me.
Then turn around and lend it to me, and become my biggest creditor.
How the hell is this tolerable?
It would be fine if the development speed was fast, after all, the starting point was low.
But now I have almost no solution to my own fiscal deficit, and you are still constantly sucking blood from me.
If my American dad doesn't teach you a lesson, you will almost forget who is the dog and who is the master.
Therefore, under the wave of US trade protectionism , the US government required Japan to open its capital market and achieve financial freedom.
This is the external cause of Japan's financial liberalization. Under the combined efforts of internal and external factors, the Japanese government compromised.
Of course, the report signed now is just a prelude, and the real storm will not come until next year.
Opening up financial markets is only one of the means; ultimately, what needs to be addressed is the trade deficit problem.
How to improve the export competitiveness of US products? Of course, the dollar should be devalued.
At the same time, it would be better if the export of products from Japan, Germany and other countries were restricted.
With this two-pronged approach, the US government’s fiscal deficit problem will soon be solved.
Of course, this is a later story.
However, at this time in the United States, the manufacturing industry has collectively lobbied the government to investigate or restrict neon-related products.
To put it bluntly, it is sanctions.
So at this moment, even the former Minister of International Trade and Industry, Uno Muneshige, is trying hard to persuade Congress to voluntarily restrict Japan's semiconductor exports.
But it was too late, the storm did not come overnight.
Its cohesion began long ago.
The trend of the times, the wheel of history, sometimes a country can only go with the flow.
…
"Mr. Arai, from today on, Kitato Bank will also accelerate the layout of its international business.
In addition, we also need to make more preparations for overseas accounts." Shirakawa Feng handed the newspaper in his hand to Arai Yu.
After reading the above content, the latter's eyes flashed with understanding.
"I will personally monitor this matter."
From Shirakawa Kaede's eyes, which were sometimes shining and sometimes cautious, Arai Yu saw something unusual.
"By the way, regarding the foreign exchange market, Beidu Bank will also open relevant accounts in New York, London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Lijiapo and other cities as soon as possible."
The modern foreign exchange market has been fully developed since the 1970s.
At that time, the Bretton Woods system gradually collapsed, and the exchange rate systems of various countries gradually changed from fixed exchange rates to floating exchange rates.
Because changes in exchange rates also bring about financial interest rate differentials, the foreign exchange market also came into being.
Today, the huge trading volume in the foreign exchange market has made it the category with the most assets in the world and the market with the best liquidity in the world.
And because foreign exchange trading cities are geographically dispersed and operate 24 hours a day.
Today's foreign exchange market is recognized as the market closest to perfect competition.
Even though central banks of various countries sometimes intervene in foreign exchange, it still cannot change this fact.
Only a market with sufficient operational freedom can facilitate the subsequent actions of Beidu Bank.
After hearing what Shirakawa Kaede said, Arai Yu became more and more certain that something was going on.
"President Shirakawa..."
Baichuan Feng waved his hand to interrupt his question, "Arai-san, I know what you want to ask. But the time has not come yet, we just need to be prepared."
It seems that it involves core secrets. No wonder the royal family and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry have visited us recently.
It turns out that the government was personally involved in this, but since it involved insider information, Arai Yu did not ask any more questions.
I believe that more specific news will be conveyed to me by then, and that will be the time for Arai Yu to leave.
Arai Yu, who thought he had inside information, suddenly became very secretive and stopped talking about what had just happened.
While Shirakawa Kaede was worrying about his own bank, Shirakawa Electric's new generation of handheld game console ODS was released as scheduled.
This handheld game console, known as the third generation, attracted widespread attention from society as soon as it was launched.
After all, with FES's outstanding performance in the past, ODS is naturally also expected to perform well.
Facts have proved that the saying "anything produced by Shirakawa must be of high quality" is absolutely true.
It's a huge improvement over the first generation of disposable handhelds.
Especially the release of Tetris, also known as the game "Tetris", has even made ODS an entertainment device suitable for all ages.
…
"Yabai, I just put a block in the wrong place~"
A social animal in the subway was secretly lamenting the missed opportunity, but his score still did not break the previous record.
"Hey, are you playing the block game too?" a girl next to the office worker asked in a cute voice.
"Hey, hay!" The office worker turned around and saw that it was actually a girl.
He was nervous and a little shy, and had never seen a girl approach him actively.
His face was flushed and he couldn't even speak clearly.
At this time, the girl noticed the score on the DOS in his hand and exclaimed, "Si Guoyi is really amazing. He can accumulate 2000 points~"
Poor girl, she usually just plays for fun and her score has never exceeded 500. When she saw the master, she couldn't help but be amazed.
"Ah, this..." The office worker scratched his head embarrassedly, "It's not that great."
"Can you teach me?"
How can a social animal bear to refuse the cute big eyes of a Japanese girl?
"Of course. Do you have a pager number? I'll contact you later." As if by some sudden inspiration, the office worker actually remembered to ask for a pager number.
"Sure~" The Sakura girl skillfully reported a number.
"By the way, do you have Kirby?"
"Just finished the game" Talking about the game, the office worker quickly got into the mood.
"That's amazing, can you lend me the game cartridge to play for a while?"
"No problem, I've already cleared the level. If you don't mind, I'll give it to you." The office worker waved his hand with great pride.
"Sri Lanka~"
Amid the sounds of "Siguoyi", the office workers instantly lost themselves and didn't even realize they had missed their subway stop.
