Yen: Japan's New Financial Empire and Its Threat to America [Hardcover]

Daniel Burstein (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Japanese are coming! The Japanese are coming! Journalist Burstein apparently sees himself as a latter-day Paul Revere warning a hapless American public against the imminent invasion by Japanese bankers and financiers. He recounts the familiar facts of Japan's economic miracle, then expresses his grave concerns about Japanese purchases of U.S. government bonds, real estate in Manhattan and Hawaii and investments in factories on U.S. soil. He argues that Japan as the world's major creditor nation is gaining power over the U.S., now the world's largest debtor nation. He even conjures up a vision of an aggressive, remilitarized Japan shaping the world in its own image. To overcome the Japanese "threat," Burstein recommends the standard litany of interventionist nostrums including the adoption of a Federal industrial policy, a separate gasoline tax to reduce the budget deficit, and trade and market reciprocity arrangements with the Japanese. The author's few good ideas on increasing American competitiveness, such as changing the tax code to encourage savings, are lost in his alarmist and overwrought analysis of the U.S.
Japan trade relationship.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- A must for every serious student of world affairs and economics. Never has an author summed up so clearly the economic events of the past decade, the consequences of bungling and inept economic policies, their world wide consequences and the devastating effects on the U.S. industry, financial institutions, investment houses, and international leadership. Few people, including economic leaders, seem to be aware that competition in the global realm of finance is tantamount to global control. Today's students will be living through and affected by the events described and predicted in this book.

Barbara Batty, Port Arthur Schools, Tex.

Copyright 1989 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 335 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671647636
• ISBN-13: 978-0671647636
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,727,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars huge bubble behind awesomehood, June 8, 2001

By 

Richard (Nantong,Jiangsu,P.R.China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yen: Japan's New Financial Empire and Its Threat to America (Hardcover)

I am a Chinese and until recently did I finish this book written 13 years ago,now in retrospect some point of this book is not seeing through enough,Daniel overestimated Japan's awesome financial power in surface,while neglected its hidden bubble economy,much of Japanese asset was built on that overexpanding bubble economy,esp. sky-rocketing high real estate price in Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. When bubble broke,Japanese myth broke in one night,its asset shrank dramatically,but anyway it's an alarming good book,helps remind us to keep vigilent at any time.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fun read, but laughable in Hindsight, March 12, 2005

By 

K. Furr - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yen: Japan's New Financial Empire and Its Threat to America (Hardcover)

It would be impossible to write another book that, trying to peer into the future, proves more utterly, completely, diametrically wrong with the passage of time. Sure it's great fun to read such a book with the benefit of a decade of hindsight, but perhaps one can learn some lessons from the mistakes of the author.

Taking things at face value. Many of his conclusions are supported by quotes from or references to people who have some bias or aganda. Burstein never questions their beliefs -- unless they are on the wrong side of his analysis.

Tulipmania. One thing clear from Burstein's book is that a lot of Westerners at the time realized very clearly that Japan's stock and real estate markets were absurdly over-valued bubbles. They were utterly correct. Burstein writes of them mainly to illustrate their supposed parochial failure to appreciate the truth of Japanese excellence and economic might.

Extrapolating unsustainable & temporary trends. A lot of his expectations for Japan are based on then-recent (1988) trends arising from the speculative mania in the Japanese financial markets. When the bubble collapsed, those trends collapsed. Burstein discusses the belief among some that the markets would fail; but not believing them, he never bothers to contemplate what would follow if such a market collpase really did happen (which it did).

No appreciation of free trade. Though Burstein seems concerned about the potential political unrest in the US that could result from protectionist fears, he doesn't understand the value of free trade. Therefore he ignores the benefits awaiting the US in terms of growth and productivity that result from ever-freer trade (and the harm Japan would suffer due to its closed markets).

Curious Specifics:
In discussing the Semiconductor industry, Burstein utterly misses the distinction of the US mastering the intellectual value-added side of the semiconductor business (eg, Intel and microprocessors); therefore he leaves no room in his analaysis for the success of, say, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, or for the rise of a new markets (eg, DSPs) that would be completely dominated by US firms (like Texas instruments). He scornfully dismisses US fabless firms vs. Japan' mastery of cheap, commodity chipmaking.

In the Computer Industry, Burstein ignores utterly & completely the US dominance in software. Also, he accepts that Japan is sure to dominate computer hardware (based on fuzzy refereneces to their success in electronics) without presenting any evidence, and without discussing the role of American companies (who remained much more dominant then Japanese firms,right up til Dell took charge.)

In Telecom, he praises Japan's ISDN initiative, accepting without analysis that all important advances in telecom hardware would come from Japan in the 1990s. Completely ignored that actual free markets had little interest in ISDN. Completely ignores data networking and innovations driven by Silicon Valley. Clearly he never bothered to ask anyone if anything was brewing in the US that would be important (surely people at the time knew of Arpanet, Cisco, 3Com, etc, even if they could not have predicted the Internet explosion)

In sum, sure hindsight is 20/20, but this guy didn't get the job done back when he wrote this.