Episode 394 – A Slice of the Pie, Part 1

June 11, 2021 1 Comment

This week, we’re returning to the era of the bubble economy and its aftermath with an up close look at the failure of one of Japan’s most prominent banks: the Long Term Credit Bank of Japan, or LTCB. First: how did LTCB dig itself so deeply into an economic hole?

Sources

Tett, Gillian. Saving the Sun: How Wall Street Mavericks Shook up Japan’s Financial World and Made Billions

Itoh, Masanao, Ryoji Koike, and Masato Shizume. “Bank of Japan’s Monetary Policy in the 1980s: A View Perceived from Archived and other Materials.” IMES Discussion Paper Series.

If you enjoy dark humor, this NYT piece on EIE and LTCB’s relationship from 1991 is amusing in light of what would come later.

Images

In 2016, Bond University unveiled bronze statues of its founders, including Takahashi Harunori (left). Bond was not, to my understanding, founded with LTCB funding but out of Takahashi’s personal fortune.
Takahashi Harunori, CEO of EIE and a long-time client of LTCB.
While it was in the midst of falling apart, LTCB completed a new headquarters here, next to Tokyo’s Hibiya Park, in 1993.
Ikeda Hayato, whose vision for finance dominated the postwar era.

1 thought on “Episode 394 – A Slice of the Pie, Part 1”

  1. We can only read the first paragraph of the NYT archived article. There’s a paywall, even with reader view.

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