What do you think?

Well, it was a bit of a missed opportunity so far for the BOJ today, sending that slightly more dovish signal.

Now, we still have to wait for Governor Weta's press conference.

There's still a possibility we get more hawkish comments.

But just compare the Fed voting unanimously for a hike, and then you compare that with the BOJ raising interest rates, but with two dissenters.

Now, if you talk about repatriation of funds...

in this environment where kind of the market has doubts into how far the BOJ will raise rates, but the Fed is more aggressive, you're not going to get that big move in assets back into Japan because, of course, investors want to see a credible, independent central bank that keeps real interest rates low.

But something I don't understand, how can an economy with debt to GDP of 230% and an ageing population be fiscally expansive and have a 4.6% deficit scheduled for this year to add to all that other debt and expect to get away with it?

How often over the years has this been the scene?

These two, uh, and I have been having lunch, uh, for 30 years.

Would you say 40 years? Adam, 40 years maybe?

Right

...

but then sometimes we move it to Thursday, and I'm telling her, "I'm going for Friday lunch." She says, "But it's Thursday." It's like, "It's still Friday lunch."

So Fred, is the potential for rate hikes in the US, which is not our base case, but would a shift in that direction have an impact on Asian economies, for example?

Yeah, of course.

Asian central bankers are watching the Fed just like all of us do, and it's very important for the region.

Now, what's interesting here is that we've just seen a kind of easing of oil prices.

So the fear that higher energy prices will drive inflation in the second half have kind of calmed down a little bit.

And so you'd think, OK, then central banks don't need to be hawkish.

They can maybe relax a little bit.

interest rates might rise and if there is some political pushback, what do you think the implications would be of that?

So Fred, is the potential for rate hikes in the US, which is not our base case, but would a shift in that direction have an impact on Asian economies, for example?

Yeah, of course.

Asian central bankers are watching the Fed just like all of us do, and it's very important for the region.

Now, what's interesting here is that we've just seen a kind of easing of oil prices.

So the fear that higher energy prices will drive inflation of second half have kind of, you know, calmed down a little bit.

And so you'd think, okay, then central banks don't need to be hawkish.

They can maybe relax a little bit.

interest rates might rise and if there is some political pushback, what do you think the implications would be of that?