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G@mer makes stunning realization about the cyberpunk genre (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/games@hexbear.net
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[–] 25 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Cheap credit was certainly a factor but I don't think you can ignore the effect of the Plaza Accords, the forced appreciation of the Yen, and the forced transfer of semi-conductor technology from Toshiba to Intel and other US compamies.

Japan is not a fully independent state and was/is under effective US military occupation. That's why they had to knuckle under and give the Americans what they wanted but when America tried the same against China, China told them to go eat shit.

Fun side story: at the height of the bubble, one property valuer estimated the land that the Imperial Palace in Tokyo sat on was worth more than all the real estate in California.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    Definitely, my point is that it could never have lasted in any case. Junk mortgages are junk mortgages, just like the US subprime housing bubble - you cannot fuel the bubble indefinitely, it has to come crashing down at some point.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    As I understand it part of the whole basis for Japan's astronomical growth in the post war period was the deliberate setting of the value if the yen below its actual value.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Nah, that's what the Yankoids what you to think because nobody could possibly beat America unless they were cheating. The Americans have been accusing China of the same thing as well.

    In reality, nobody is going to buy a Japanese product if its not a good product. Japan had a strong centralized industrial policy where the state directed and financed the creation of key industrial sectors like automobiles and electronics. This goes against American free market ideology, which is why America is so committed to the myth of Japanese currency manipulation.

    Well that, and a big does of "those yellows can only be beating us if they're cheating" racism.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    No as i understand it the setting of the yen at a favorable interest rate was part of the process if recapitalizing the Japanese economy after the war. It was a deliberate move to undercut the Japanese communist party.

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