The Guardian view on Japan’s hidden century: cheap money, global risk | Editorial

Ultra-low rates turned the yen into easy cash for bankers. But the carry trade now binds global markets to decisions in Tokyo In 2015, Clyde Prestowitz’s book Japan Restored imagined a Japanese century emerging from upheavals such as an Israeli attack on Iran. While conflict now grips the Middle East, there are few indications of the revolutionary change the former US national security official foresaw. But in one crucial respect this already is a Japanese century – thanks to the yen’s role a...

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