Report

TOE Alert: GPIF Sses Pensioners' Money to Boost Stock Prices

posted by Richard Katz on March 05, 2015

Found in Japan, categorized in Politics

Tags: TOE Richard Katz Abe pension GPIF

Report Cover

Headline

More evidence is needed to verify the criticism that today’s high share prices are the result of a “government controlled market” created by GPIF money, but it is not an absurd conclusion to reach.

Abstract

The stock monitor in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office is just one of the indicators of the degree to which he sees rising stock prices as pivotal to approval ratings. In the past, he has used “jawboning” to try to raise stock prices. Now, he is using the money of Japan’s retirees and soon-to-be retirees.

About Richard Katz

Richard Katz is Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics In International Affairs, the New York correspondent for Weekly Toyo Keizai, a leading Japanese business magazine, and formerly the editor of The Oriental Economist Report, a monthly newsletter on Japan.

Mr. Katz has taught about Japan’s economy as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, and as a Visiting Lecturer in Economics at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook.

Mr. Katz is the author of two books on Japan's economic travails and has just finished a third book on reviving entrepreeurship in Japan.

Request a speaking engagement