PRESS RELEASE

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Bank of Japan Chief Rejects
Interest Rate Hike

Jan. 26 (EIRNS)—Despite pressure from some government leaders, Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui has refused to lower Japan's interest rate from the already ridiculously low 0.5%. The head of monetary policy for the majority Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Kozo Yamamoto, responded to the insane U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut of .75% on Tuesday, January 22, insisting that Japan should follow the U.S. self-destruction by cutting the BOJ rate to zero. This would please the British, but destroy the Japanese economy.

Lyndon LaRouche has supported Fukui's stated intention to RAISE Japan's interest rate since last June, noting that the yen carry trade, based on the near-zero yen borrowing rate, was destroying the Japanese economy while feeding the speculators in the West who were driving the world economy to collapse - a collapse that has now occurred. Fukui never carried out such a rate hike, but is now resisting the insane pressure to dig an even deeper hole.