The ways of Japanese

Perhaps, one of the most interesting, but intriguing aspect of the Japanese rituals is 'Sepukku', a method by which a samurai commits suicide. If a samurai is disgraced in a fight or if he fails in a given task, he commits a self-righteous suicide known as the hara kiri or sepukku. '47th ronin' is one of the most beautiful stories of japanese literature, where 47 samurais committ sepukku after avenging their master.

The modern day equivalent will be suicide attacks that were conducted by the kamikaze japanese pilots during the second world war. Later the Japanese realized that there are better ways to beat their enemies. During the 1980's, they were literally trying to eat everybody's economic lunch. Lee Iacocca, the legendary car maker, in his book wrote; "Japanese have a clever way of smuggling steel into America. They paint it, put it on 4 wheels and call it a car". Just hilarious.

But off late, it seems like China is on its way to upset the global economic order. Last year, they bought over $200 billion worth American bonds. In other words, Americans are bridging their fiscal deficit using Chinese money. Any sharp shift, in the movement of funds (lets say China decides to invest all the inflows in their own infrastructure, instead of baling out) can be catastrophic to the Amercian economy.