HOt Body Stephanie Seymour In Yellow Woollen Bikini
Any target for the pound?
We hesitate to come up with targets because the dynamics can take on a life of their own, but we do believe that both a gradual decline or a crisis are possible.
You also mentioned difficulties on the horizon for Japan.
If you look at the yen, the times it has been the strongest, for example from the summer of 2007 till a few months ago, coincide with the period when the Bank of Japan did not intervene in the market and the government was in crisis. They had seven finance minsters in that period, and what that means is that the markets were allowed to play out as the government was unable to push for fiscal spending and force the Bank of Japan into quantitative easing. Now we have a government that is reasonably organized, that is able to spend more money and put more pressure on the Bank of Japan to engage in quantitative easing. When you spend more money, you might be able to get short-term economic growth, but you are also much more likely to get a weaker currency. On top of that, the Japanese society is aging very, very quickly, and sooner or later they will have to finance their deficits from abroad. One of the reasons why the massive spending in Japan has not impacted its currency is that traditionally the Japanese have financed their deficits domestically. In the future that may change.