Posted on 06/28/2013 2:32:53 AM PDT by TexGrill
TOKYO : Japan’s banks emerged from the 2008 global credit crisis largely unscathed because senior employees did not speak English well enough to have got them into trouble, the country’s finance minister said Friday. Taro Aso, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.
“Many people fell prey to the dubious products, or so-called subprime loans. Japanese banks were not so much attracted to these products, compared with European banks,” Aso told a seminar in Tokyo.
“There was an American who said Japanese banks are healthy, but that’s not true at all.
“Managers of Japanese banks hardly understood English, that’s why they didn’t buy,” he said.
Aso’s comments Friday are the latest in a line of pronouncements that have raised eyebrows.
The one-time prime minister said in January the elderly should be allowed to “hurry up and die” instead of costing the government money with expensive end-of-life medical care.
(Excerpt) Read more at nst.com.my ...
American dollar and Engrish are international currency.
But, being stupid is smart move?
Not buying it. Funny thing, no one’s buying yer crapola either...
You got no yen for your yang ...
Analogous to being immune to a computer virus simply because you’re not using the mainstream operating system....
Unlike bankers in the West, who clearly did not understand the complex financial instruments but did not want to appear unworthy of their office. Though there were those who were saying "The Emperor has no clothes!", I was one of those saying, "I can't see the Emperor's clothes."
Whenever someone says "complex financial instruments", I take the safety off my Browning. Subprime mortgages and Collateralized Debt Obligations are the financial equivalent of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
Bob Cratchett, Oliver Twist and Tiny Tim ?
Good point, I’ve met a few of these investment bankers before and when they start speaking in such complex terminology I often wondered if they really knew what they were talking about or did they memorize the Goldman Sachs sales pitch talking points plan. Since they knew I was equally clueless they might have pretended to look intelligence by acting like snobs.
Not understanding a prospectus or potential investment is an excellent reason to avoid investing. It could be that it actually is incomprehensible. Greedy people see the purported return, and only that. Insecure people and arrogant people can’t admit an inability to understand. Complexity for complexity’s sake usually conceals any number of pitfalls. See any proposed law in the past decade for a prime example. See any common scam for another. Dazzle ‘em with bs. Enough fall for it, every time, to reward the effort.
The Indian government also avoiding buying many of these instruments; they openly admitted they didn’t understand them, and were hailed as heroes when it all unraveled.
It would be interesting to find out how principals of the “failed” Lehmans react to that statement.
The concept and benefits of diversification are straightforward enough. But a big steaming pile of excrement is not really diversification. Part of the appeal of Mortgage CDOs was that they were issued by government sponsored entities, and appeared to represent at least a moral obligation on the credit of the United States.
Barney Frank should rot in Hell, but there’s enough blame to go around. Republicans should have been shouting, stomping and screaming out loud. All the reasonable people just shut up and ate this crap sandwich.
Many Indians I know are experts at details so more power to them when they said keep us out. The Chinese stayed out too. Lately, I’ve been reading a few books about Wall Street investment bankers. There was a culture where these folks were making everything so complicated to cover their tracks if the SEC attempted to investigate their actions. But things got so complicated that money would go into schemes that even investment bankers could not comprehend so when the financial crisis struck they couldn’t figure out where they placed these funds, so hence no available liquidity in the markets.
Smart investors of any stripe want to know what the underlying asset of a piece of paper is, though in defense of those who lost money many were scammed illegally (and people went to prison for it).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.