by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 10, 1998

The economic fate of Asia and to a great extent the rest of the world … rests more than ever before in the hands of Japan’s political leaders and bureaucrats,” writes James Baker on July 8 in The Washington Times.

The “worst-case scenario,” says an alarmed ex-secretary of state, is “now all too easy to see. … If Japan does not follow up its most recent rhetoric of reform with a resolve to act, the yen is bound to sink further, taking down the Chinese yuan.