And then there is this: How Japan financed global reflation
In 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, Japan carried out a remarkable experiment in monetary policy ? remarkable in the impact it had on the global economy and equally remarkable in that it went almost entirely unnoticed in the financial press. Over those 15 months, monetary authorities in Japan created ¥35 trillion. [...] The Bank of Japan gave the ¥35 trillion to the Japanese Ministry of Finance in exchange for MOF debt with virtually no yield; and the MOF used the money to buy approximately $320 billion from the private sector. The MOF then invested those dollars into US dollar- denominated debt instruments such as government bonds and agency debt in order to earn a return.
[...]
The Bank of Japan gave the ¥35 trillion to the Japanese Ministry of Finance in exchange for MOF debt with virtually no yield; and the MOF used the money to buy approximately $320 billion from the private sector. The MOF then invested those dollars into US dollar- denominated debt instruments such as government bonds and agency debt in order to earn a return.
Of course when the Japanese adopted a full accommodation monetary policy stance in the 90's, that resulted in a lower Yen (indirect) FXR, but that the way floating exchange rates are expected to work when a country has a sluggish economy and adopts a loose monetary policy.
Mind you, Japanese corporations went through a structural transition in the imported/domestic composition of their exports during the 1990's ... a major factor in the sluggish domestic economy in the 1990's ... so I guess someone could argue that they are embedding the neo-mercantalist monetary policy embedded in the Chinese and Southeast Asian into their exports via the imported component of their exports. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Upshot is that they can - and do, as I can state from personal experience - make manufacturing/import/export decisions based on their analysis of the mid-term, relative financial trends between their domestic economies and those of their 'clients'. paul spencer
