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| 'Foreign capital' attacks helpless Japanese banks -a Tokyo daily's take on the CSFP episode |
Picture the scene. You are on Tokyo's Ginza Street, a crowded four-lane highway that's the site of some of the world's busiest department stores. It's 3pm on a Saturday and a vehicle is driving in the middle of the road blaring out an order over its loudspeaker. All the cars quickly leave and old ladies in straw hats appear. They put tables, chairs and parasols in the middle of the road. Only three minutes earlier that would have meant certain death.
Something remarkably similar happened to the Credit Suisse Group in Japan. Picture Credit Suisse merrily driving down a four-lane road, with other banks motoring along behind. The law says the way the Swiss firm is driving is okay, and others are moving along in the same way. Then a regulator tootles down the road and blares out an order that is loud but maybe not very clear. Other cars start turning off and soon Credit Suisse is the last vehicle on a remarkably empty road.