Citation :
[...]While the US was distracted by all of the Sandy and election news this week, the Bank of Japan took a shocking step in this direction, according to David Zervos of Jefferies, who notes that the latest easing announcement was a joint production between the Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance, amove that never happens:
BoJ policies, by virtually any measure, have been an abject failure. The institution has consistently remained too tight in the face of worsening economic conditions for over 2 decades. And while the economy has had to pay a horrible price for these errors, the tables look like they are about to turn in a nasty way on the institution itself.
Accompanying the depressing standard BoJ statement on 30-Oct was this very curious additional release - http://www.boj.or.jp/en/announceme [...] 1030b.pdf. Here we have the BoJ governor, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy jointly issuing a press release on the BoJ website entitled - "Measures Aimed at Overcoming Deflation". A press release of this kind is completely unprecedented. And it was published in the "Monetary Policy Releases" section of the BoJ website.
So here we have two executive branch government ministers issuing declarations on the monetary policy portion of the BoJ website regarding price stability. Can anyone imagine if Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Hillary Clinton were to issue a joint statement on fighting deflation that was in turn prominently displayed under in the monetary policy section of the Fed's website? It would be mutiny!
The executive branch politicians in Japan have, for the first time ever, infiltrated the mother ship. BoJ independence is now under explicit political attack. This should be a warning to all central bankers with "sound money" religion - if you don't let the inflation dogs out and crank up the printing presses as the economy deteriorates, the politicians will come and shut you down. What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for independent Japanese monetary policy.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/zer [...] z2BLIHcqKZ[...]
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