Robert Feldman Quotations

We have wasted an insane amount of money. Health care is being starved to keep the postal system, the roads and bridges around. In a country with a shrinking, aging population, this system is going to lower living standards.

When I see that waterfront project as a taxpayer, I'm worried. But as an economist, I'm even more worried because I see capital being wasted in an economy where it will be very scarce reasonably soon. And that has something to do with how fast you can expect the (Japanese) economy to grow.

With such a stunning result, passage of the postal reform bills is virtually assured. The next areas are medical reform, civil service reform, public sector outsourcing and government financial institution reform.

As the semiconductor cycle goes through a rough spot, then clearly Japanese manufacturers will be affected. Their desire to build new capacity and plant will be affected -- and so it's clearly not a good thing for the Japanese economy.

The surplus will begin to moderate at some point relatively soon, partly because of some slowing in U.S. growth and partly because Japanese imports will begin to catch up a bit to the export surge.

The U.S. isn't about to cut interest rates to save the other currencies. And the Japanese or the Germans are not about to hike rates in order to affect exchange markets. So the fundamentals are still pointing in the direction of a somewhat stronger dollar.

The U.S. isn't about to cut interest rates to save the other currencies,

For now, things appear to be fine. The debate right now is how big a slowdown can be expected in 1997.

The key issue for the economy overall is reallocating capital and labor among the sectors to have a more efficient economy,