Japan today is caught up in chronic economic crisis, its financial system wracked by record-breaking bankruptcies and its companies hobbled by bad balance sheets, overproduction, and weak consumer demand. In turn, Japan's faltering fortunes have sent shock waves across Asia, triggering the collapse of economies in South Korea, Thailand, and other Asian countries that followed its model for rapid growth and development. While a growing chorus of Japanese politicians, business leaders, and economic analysts blame the current troubles on the misguided policies of Japan's Ministry of Finance, the root of Japan's malaise lies more fundamentally in the contradictory relationship that first made it an economic powerhouse: the combination of businesses that aggressively compete for profits in the best tradition of free enterprise with a government bureaucracy that controls the economy with a heavy thicket of regulation and guidance. And so far, despite ringing declarations of reform, the entrenched bureaucracy shows little willingness -- or ability -- to make the significant reforms that Japan (and its Asian economic disciples) needs to recover. In this book, a cross-section of Japanese, American, and European journalists and authorities in the business, political, and economic sectors examine the problems caused by over-regulation, and offer solutions for reshaping the Japanese marketplace. In Part One, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Vice Minister of Finance Eisuke Sakakibara, and some of America's and Japan's leading experts on the Japanese economy map out the long road to regulatory reform. They analyze the postwar origins of today's bureaucracy, current attitudes toward regulation among politicians and the public, and the changes in both policymaking and mind set that must occur to achieve true reform. Part Two focuses on the effects of over-regulation, using illuminating case studies involving Japan's financial system, insurance markets, non

Within a few short months in 1997, Asian economies that had been considered not only healthy but "miraculous" suddenly fell off a precipice as investors withdrew massively first from Asian currencies and, in rapid order, from equity markets across the region. On October 27 1997, the turmoil in Asian markets spooked Wall Street in the largest single-day decline in history, a drop of 550 points. It was predicted that the Asian crash could drive the US trade deficit from $191 billion to $300 billion by 1998, creating huge new tensions in relations with some of the largest US trading partners. These wrenching changes, following a generation of success, raise numerous questions about the steps that led to the crisis, its likely outcome and the limits and constraints of "Asian capitalism". Edith Terry presents a blow-by-blow account of the crisis, beginning with the 1996 collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce. In her overview, she links the fall of the Asian miracle with the theme of globalization, arguing that the crisis demonstrates the urgency of dismantling restraints to trade, investment, and financial services, and that the United States should take leadership in pushing for new and sweeping reform through the World Trade Organization and in bilateral negotiations with its trading partners. The final section of the book deals with the rise of the "Asian miracle" - how the myth was created, who created it, why it succeeded for so long - and is informed by analysis of the Japanese prototype.

From the author of the international bestseller Debt: The First 5,000 Years comes a revelatory account of the way bureaucracy rules our lives Where does the desire for endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy come from? How did we come to spend so much of our time filling out forms? And is it really a cipher for state violence? To answer these questions, the anthropologist David Graeber—one of our most important and provocative thinkers—traces the peculiar and unexpected ways we relate to bureaucracy today, and reveals how it shapes our lives in ways we may not even notice…though he also suggests that there may be something perversely appealing—even romantic—about bureaucracy. Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, The Utopia of Rules is at once a powerful work of social theory in the tradition of Foucault and Marx, and an entertaining reckoning with popular culture that calls to mind Slavoj Zizek at his most accessible. An essential book for our times, The Utopia of Rules is sure to start a million conversations about the institutions that rule over us—and the better, freer world we should, perhaps, begin to imagine for ourselves.

Chapter 14. Conclusion: Toward Efficiency and Stability in Asian Real Estate Markets -- About the Editors and Contributors -- Index

This book by a distinguished academic and a professional economist from the World Bank clearly demonstrates the significant role played by the real estate sector in inducing the Asian crisis; the linkage of the real estate sector to the general economy; the causes of real estate booms and subsequent busts; and the economic costs of real estate price volatility. The book also includes suggestions for moderating such volatility in the future.

A fast-growing social media marketing company, TechCo encourages all of its employees to speak up. By promoting open dialogue across the corporate hierarchy, the firm has fostered a uniquely engaged workforce and an enviable capacity for change. Yet the path hasn't always been easy. TechCo has confronted a number of challenges, and its experience reveals the essential elements of bureaucracy that remain even when a firm sets out to discard them. Through it all, TechCo serves as a powerful new model for how firms can navigate today's rapidly changing technological and cultural climate. Catherine J. Turco was embedded within TechCo for ten months. The Conversational Firm is her ethnographic analysis of what worked at the company and what didn't. She offers multiple lessons for anyone curious about the effect of social media on the corporate environment and adds depth to debates over the new generation of employees reared on social media: Millennials who carry their technological habits and expectations into the workplace. Marshaling insights from cultural and economic sociology, organizational theory, economics, technology studies, and anthropology, The Conversational Firm offers a nuanced analysis of corporate communication, control, and culture in the social media age.