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Japanese Government Raids Intel Tokyo Offices
mordicus writes "Reuters
is reporting that Japanese Trade Officials have raided Intel's Japan Offices. From the article:
'Japan's fair trade watchdog raided the offices of Intel Corp's Japanese unit on
Thursday and a government source in Tokyo said the chip giant is suspected of violating
antitrust laws.' Japan seems to be rather vigilant in enforcing its antitrust legislation. Microsoft's Japanese unit was target of a
similar operation
less than two months ago."
Well, at least they have been against American companies.
"You should do more manufacturing in Japan."
"You should have these new Japanese employees contribute money to the (misnamed) Liberal Democratic Party".
Is it just me, or does anyone else think they might have chosen a more descriptive word for what happened? When I think of a raid, I think of things like a drug bust where they bang down the door and come in with guns drawn. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling this "raid" was more like some guys in suits showing up and demanding to speak with certain people and look at certain files, etc. Then again, Intel does hire some sneaky folk, and you never know if they have a stockpile of BFG-9000's in the back room waiting for the FTC to come.
Needless to say, calling it a "raid" gives the wrong impression (to me).
Celebrate Steak and a Blowjob Day!
Unfortunately, many countries are not in the same position to aggravate or turn down Western business, even if in the medium and long run they lose in the deal. For many "third world" countries, short-term existence (and political graft) are the only thing on the radar.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I think that it is refreshing to see some trustbusting and pricefixing countermeasures in our cosey little global economy.
you know, more than just obvious corporate welfare, subsidies and pandering. At least the Japanese look after their own a little.
If a Japanese company had a position in the US markets as dominant as Microsoft or Intel, I imagine you'd see some action from DC.
I wish AMD was the only processor manufacturer in the world, then everyone could only buy processors that are high quality for a low price.
I wonder if the price of AMD would be so good if they would be a monopoly ...
I still like choices. Let AMD and Intel and maybe some more companies compete. This creates innovation and good prices
Sony doesn't have a monopoly in any segment of domestic products that I can think of. I remember seeing an interview with a head Sony designer and he had a very sobering thought: "Any technology we bring to market will be copied by 2 or 3 major competitors within 6 months. What separates us from our competitors is branding, consistency in design, and a reputation for quality."
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
The well connected criminals don't get caught, organized crime is HUGE in Japan, and since the gangs are VERY politically connected, police only do token raids on the Yakuza to show the citizens that they are devoted to busting crime. Prostitution is illegal, but there are prostitutes EVERYWHERE! It's run by the Yakuza, so the police do nothing about it. Though the police do seem interested in busting some of the growing number of foreign gangs in Japan(mostly Chinese and Korean).
Oh, well that makes sense. Otherwise I'd have see the humor in the fact that the Japanese government is protecting industries that beat Intel in the past by flooding the RAM chip industry at a loss, then jacking up the price after the competitors were eliminated.
Anyway, go AMD!
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
what I said. I said US central bankers were stupider. that's it. And they are. They failed to hold some cards, they threw away any backup "economy", they over extended how far they could push other nations to keep taking petrodollars, and they exported too many jobs too fast. japan was a little slower to do it, that's all. I said nothing about japans central bankers except they are trying to distance themselves from the buck, as are any number of other nations, that is just data, use google news search for the info, alot has been happening this year..
If you ask me, the only smart bankers now are in the islamic nations, where they have kicked off the adoption of the gold dinar to settle national debts between the islamic nations, and at some time, these nations will expand that to insisting on gold or partially gold backed currencies for their oil, or use direct swaps, oil for manufactured goods, and guess who will be in the drivers seat then with A the need for oil, and B-manufactured goods to swap. big hint, it ain't japan or the US. Starts with a "C". That is also one of the reasons that the shrub crime gang invaded iraq, he was about to insist on getting paid in euros for oil, not in fed reserve notes. They wanted to establish a beachhead with troops on the ground to help counter chinas obvious moves into the mideast, beyond what they are doing already. Venezuela is close to that now, too, BTW, sewriously thinking about not using dollars for their oil.
The days of the debt based counterfeit money are numbered, that includes the yen and the dollar. The euro will take longer to slide, but it will too, even though it's up nicely lately.
ALL the big industrialised nations are in trouble regarding currencies,debt, and the obvious inability to fund their populations "retirements". Ain't happening. Because basically, the entire concept on debt based currency is insane, it's a scam, a con game. Japan went along with it too, yes they have been struggling, they are more aware of it's deficiencies than anyone posting on slashdot, including me of course. They just have the same amount of political crooks and banker crooks as "leaders" as we do, and no way will those guys admit what a full ripoff it is, how truly corrupt a system like that becomes... so they have to keep trying to plug the flooding dike, and it's almost impossible.
There's no easy fix for it when you are running on debt as a benchmark as opposed to honestly quantified produced wealth. You cannot "borrow" wealth into existence, but you can easily borrow "debt" into existence. Calling it wealth does not make it so. Do that long enough and extensively enough, ya gets your problems..Japan has 'em, we got 'em, and etc...
In the short and medium term, historically speaking, it can be used to create the illusion of wealth production, obviously it works,congames usually work, but in the long run, the historical track record of any fiat or debt based currency ever tried in man's history has always failed and collapsed in the end. It always BSOD in practical terms. All shiny and flashy, everyone is happy, everyone is rich, blather yada yada, exactly like the dotcom boom when people thought that that fiat currency,their "portfolios" which showed these totally unrealistic "worth values" that they were pre spending in their minds,the inflated debt based projections represented by stock "value" collapsed, and collapsed hard once reality set in. Those inflated values are an exact analogy to a fiat currency such as exists in japan, the us, and elsewheres. Works for awhile, then kaboom. the only variable is in the timing. No exceptions yet in man's history. It usually causes tremendous social change, conflicts, wars, whatnot.
Japan is trying to deal with as problem that is basically un-fixable, the best they can hope for is a mitigation of the problems, not a full complete fix. They've already adjusted insane real estate prices, and they had to adjust their internal economy by outsourcing, something they never really w