Ill-considered pronouncements from Japanese finance minister Masajuro Shiokawa are endangering economic recovery in the country and would be better left unsaid
Duct tape executives must be dancing around corporate suites these days. Concerns about terrorist attacks have created 101 uses for the sticky stuff. Now there is number 102, and it is in Japan's economy. The usage in question is muzzling Japanese policymakers, who cannot seem to avoid clouding markets with words. 'One of the better things in terms of intervention the MOF could do is buy a big roll of duct tape and paste it over [finance minister Masajuro] Shiokawa's mouth,' says Robert Rennie, a currency analyst at Westpac Banking Corp. 'His words have undone a lot of hard work the MOF...
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