Japan after Defeat: Recovery & Dependence on the US
Plaza Accord: การล่มสลายของญี่ปุ่น ปาฏิหาริย์เศรษฐกิจไทย และการสู้กับจีน สงครามการค้าที่ถูกลืม
Summary
Forty years ago a trade war was fought whose effects are still with us. Japan rose to economic superpower status and the United States responded.
The Plaza Accord used the exchange rate as the weapon. What followed was the collapse of the Japanese bubble and the lost decade.
Thailand’s economic miracle was an unplanned side effect, as Japanese capital moved its production base offshore.
Key points
An exchange rate can be a weapon
No tariff is needed to change another country’s competitiveness wholesale.
Japan signed it
The accord was not imposed by force, which is the part most worth weighing against the present.
The damage arrived late and stayed
The bubble inflated first and then burst; the real cost ran for a decade.
Thailand gained from someone else’s loss
The golden age of the Thai economy began with decisions taken in New York and Tokyo.