Japanese regulators fail to give stimulus to ailing stock markets

Japanese politicians are off and running in their annual spring effort to help companies hide losses from shareholders. Where else in the world would you find lawmakers announcing that they are considering suspending rules that require companies to report securities holdings at market value? That was reported in the Wall Street Journal on 14 March. So much better to allow companies to value their assets at the higher, not lower, end of cost or market. Step back and think about this for a moment. What kind of signal does this send to investors when Japan encourages an open debate among e...