The Mainichi Newspaper, Morning Edition, 1 July 2001, Tokyo

By Akira Oohka, Award-winning Bestseller Author

What the 'Princes' of the Bank of Japan did...

Money supply...drop in short-term interests...call market trends... When I hear these words, I have really no idea what they are talking about; I am, in short, an economics illiterate. It no doubt seems somewhat extreme, then, that someone like me would write the review of an economics book.

However, should the book deal not just with economic problems, but also unmask the true causes and power brokers behind those very economic problems, then the story is a little different. Even economics illiterates like me sense acutely the cycle of economic ups and downs. So, if there is a villain behind these cycles, then I for one want him brought to trial.

So thought I, and as I began to read, those very villains appeared unceremoniously right from the preface. Well, it's not a suspense novel so what can one expect - all the more you feel the author's sincerity from his direct writing style.

So who in the world caused these economic problems? The Bank of Japan. To be more precise, the rulers of the Bank of Japan, or "princes", as the author calls them, running on their predetermined career rails and seated at the top of the pile. According to the author, since World War II just a handful of princes have led the Japanese economy as they wished, and since the New BoJ Law was enacted in 1998, the power they have been granted is now even greater.

No doubt I am not the only one to be startled by this. One feels like asking "But wasn't the villain supposed to be the Ministry of Finance, which was heckled from all sides after the bubble burst and ultimately reorganized due to the scandals?!"

According to this book, that was also due to the skillful foresight of the Bank of Japan. The book depicts the BoJ princes' secret battle to revive the "American style liberalized economy", as it existed in the Japan of the 1920s, to fight the controlled war economy - which, after the war, enabled the post-war high growth - and overcome the Ministry of Finance's longing for an economy of regulation and control. But let's move on and pay attention now to the most important keyword of the book: 'credit creation'. The foundation of this word comes from the fraudulent nature of money.

The European goldsmiths discovered the method of keeping the physical material gold, and allowing mere paper - proof of holding - to circulate in a much higher volume than the original funds. Giving the current banking model as an example, the author argues that money is merely something that is sustained by credit. Money has a tautological constitution: it has value because it is circulated under the belief that it has value.

In other words, money or bank notes can be created infinitely. The Bank of Japan and central banks worldwide trusted partners with paper money to expand their businesses and thus stimulate the market. This is 'credit creation'. Conversely, 'credit contraction' is caused by reducing money printing.

"Honestly! Surely not!" I think at firstc.but perhaps indeed this surprisingly simple mechanism does turn the wheels of the economy - Werner's argument fits perfectly with the 'intuition' of an economics illiterate. Not only do I close the book convinced, but filled with something akin to joy.

So the question is whether or not the Bank of Japan used this ability to create the bubble, moreover let it burst and whether they have continued to exercise control ever since. If so, the world is under the control of central bankers like the Bank of Japan, and they will take us towards global unification using currency unification - a horror more terrifying than any other.