About a year has passed since the subprime-mortgage-loan debacle and the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global financial crisis and worldwide recession. In Japan, some indicators suggest the economy has bottomed out and may be headed toward recovery. However, the employment situation hasn’t ...

The Group of Eight countries and the outreach participants in the July 8-10 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, discussed promotion of an international currency system that is stable and functions well. But it remains an elusive goal to find concrete ways of reforming the system. ...

General Motors Corp., which until several years ago led not only the U.S. economy but the global economy as the world’s largest automaker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, concluding a corporate history that spanned more than a century. That GM was ...

A major wave of what could perhaps be called the second round of “price destruction” is accelerating in Japan. As corporate bankruptcies rise and companies pursue mergers and integrations, the recent closure of a department store that established a new business model during the ...

The Japanese economy is stuck in a tailspin. With industrial output sinking 10.2 percent in January and 9.4 percent in February, economic activity could drop to half in another six months. With interest rates close to zero, the Bank of Japan is trying to ...

F inance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven top economies wrapped up two days of talks last month with the recognition that the global economy will continue to deteriorate this year, and urged governments to act in concert to stabilize their ...

Every time a new economic indicator is released by the government, it becomes even more evident that this year will be a tough one for the Japanese economy. Take industrial output. If it keeps shrinking at this pace for another six months, manufacturing and ...

The dollar is strengthening against all major currencies except the yen. That the currency of the nation where the subprime crisis originated — and where the Big Three automakers are begging for federal help to survive — should get stronger appears strange. Why is ...

With the messages of “Change” and “Yes, we can,” Democratic Sen. Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 4. Apparently aided by the financial crisis that unfolded under the Republican administration of George W. Bush, Obama scored a resounding victory that gave ...

The upheaval in the U.S. financial system since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 two weeks ago has triggered turmoil worldwide. The United States government has handed Congress a comprehensive plan to buy up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets from U.S.-based ...

The subprime-mortgage problem has entered a third phase. The first phase, needless to say, involved the decline in housing prices in the United States that crippled many homeowners’ ability to repay their loans. Subprime lending schemes were based on the assumption that housing prices ...

The Toyako G8 Summit held from July 7 to 9 with the participation of leaders from 23 other countries exposed the wide rift between the developed and developing worlds and failed to reach concrete agreements on key issues ranging from climate change to surging ...