The Bank of Japan is widely expected to raise interest rates to 1 percent at its policy meeting on the 15th. Inflationary pressures have been building, and the widening interest-rate gap between Japan and the United States has helped push the yen into what often seems like an endless decline.
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Then, today, came a surprise: BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda would reportedly miss the meeting because of a sudden illness requiring surgery…..
Aha! Could this be a case of “Shoot the Pianist”? The phrase comes from the title of the 1960 film Shoot the Piano Player—in other words, get rid of the entertainer who is playing the tune you don’t like.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has made no secret of her preference for economic stimulus: expansive fiscal policy and relatively low interest rates. So perhaps, one might joke, someone decided that the easiest way to stop an inconvenient BOJ rate hike was to remove Governor Ueda from the stage…Pure speculation, of course. At least, I hope so.
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Interestingly, disappearing central bankers are not unique to Japan.
In Russia, Governor Elvira Nabiullina—who has spent the last several years trying to save the Russian economy from runaway war-driven inflation—has also vanished from public view for more than a week. Illness is said to be the reason.
Nabiullina has kept interest rates painfully high in an effort to tame inflation, earning herself no shortage of enemies in both political and business circles. So, was she, too, made a victim of “shoot the pianist”? One hopes not.
And I wish good health to the newly appointed Chair of the Federal Reserve Mr. Warsh.
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