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I think the lead story for the Money section of the September 23rd issue of USA Today is a great example. The long piece chronicled some of the problems facing Japanese bankers. Bad debts for that country’s banks rose 29% in the last fiscal year to $350 billion, and that may be only a partial accounting. Some analysts think the real figure for bad loans is closer to $1 trillion. They are sitting on huge losses in the stock market. And the list of problems is long -- and disturbing. But most disturbing is the fact that most of this happened because of self deceit and denial. Quoting from the article now, “When the bad loans started piling up in the early ’90s, Japanese bankers stuck to an unspoken, unbreakable rule: Never admit that anything is going wrong."

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