Current location:World Walkthrough news portal > entertainment
VOX POPULI: Leadership skills of the past are missing in the politics of today
World Walkthrough news portal2024-04-30 03:32:36【entertainment】2People have gathered around
IntroductionU.S. economist Joseph Dodge (1890-1964) arrived in occupied Japan in 1949 as the financial adviser t
U.S. economist Joseph Dodge (1890-1964) arrived in occupied Japan in 1949 as the financial adviser to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
Tasked with implementing postwar economic stabilization programs, which came to be known as the Dodge Line, he stated during a news conference on March 7 of 75 years ago that Japan’s economy had been standing on stilts.
Noting that the pair of stilts consisted of U.S. aid and Japanese government subsidies, Dodge called for a super-balanced budget policy.
In the immediate postwar era, Japan was supported by massive amounts of U.S. aid that far exceeded its own annual budget.
And Japanese government subsidies were used to pay the difference generated by export import controls.
Dodge insisted that the only way to curb Japan’s hyperinflation was to lop off those “stilts.”
This seriously alarmed the then-Democratic Liberal Party (Minshu Jiyu-to) Cabinet of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (1878-1967), who had just won the general election of January 1949 by a landslide after pledging massive tax cuts.
Implementing an austerity policy would constitute an outright breach of the party’s election pledge.
His finance minister, Hayato Ikeda (1899-1965), was in a bind.
He held repeated negotiations with Dodge, hoping, at least, to carry out partial tax cuts.
But the budget outlook could not have been more different from what the party had pledged, and intraparty dissatisfaction erupted.
At one point, Ikeda was said to have been prepared to step down.
Ultimately, Yoshida basically “shut everyone up and got the budget approved,” recalled former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (1919-2007) in his memoir.
Miyazawa was Ikeda’s policy aide at the time.
The drastic budget-balancing “remedy” served to bring the nation’s hyperinflation under control, but it also caused severe side effects.
A great number of small and midsize enterprises went belly-up, and many workers were let go around the nation in what came to be called the “Dodge recession.”
In July 1950, the stock average plummeted to 85.25, the lowest level ever.
And on March 4 this year, the Nikkei stock average topped 40,000 for the first time.
The nation’s “stilts” economy is a thing of a long-past era, but I feel uneasy.
Perhaps that’s because I don’t see any politician today agonizing over the weight of their election pledge or asserting leadership to forge party unity.
--The Asahi Shimbun, March 5
* *
*Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Address of this article:http://pakistan.whetstonetavern.com/news-61e199935.html
Very good!(7381)
Related articles
- Rolling Stones show no signs of slowing during latest tour in Texas
- Winter Paralympic Torch Relay Held in Beijing's Olympic Forest Park
- Chinese Procurators Help Schools Promote Legal Work, Campus Security
- Migrant Workers' Life in East China's Huzhou
- Scarred UNESCO World Heritage site Jiuzhaigou recovers after quake
- Beijing Ready for 2022 Winter Olympics
- Folk Artists Put on Performance to Celebrate Upcoming Spring Festival in SW China's Sichuan
- China to Further Address Excessive School Homework: Ministry
- 8th Aswan int'l women film festival opens in Egypt
- In Pics: Closing Ceremony of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games
Popular articles
Recommended
Convicted robber, 45, admits stabbing charity busker, 87, while riding his mobility scooter
China Makes Progress in Consolidating Poverty Alleviation: Official
Xinjiang Issues Development Plan for Women, Children
Children View Lanterns at Lantern Making Center in Hebei
200 days into Israel
Shandong Establishes Online Platform to Provide Door
Xinjiang Issues Development Plan for Women, Children
Construction of Mainland
Links
- China's courier delivering volume hits 132 billion parcels in 2023
- Luxury brands embrace the Year of the Dragon
- China's second
- 4th CICPE scheduled from April 13
- NASA's next Mars mission to probe deep interior of red planet
- Airbus to set up innovation center in China
- Xi Meets IOC President
- Xi Meets Nepalese Prime Minister
- World's largest energy corridor generates impressive power
- Chongqing to build world