Japan's story is a twice-told tale. American economists and financial businesspeople know the story of Japan's travails, of the reluctance of government to do what had to be done and the costs that followed delay and inaction.
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As they did in Tokyo, they are doing in Washington: refusing to accept that the nation's largest financial institutions--with a couple of exceptions--are insolvent, bankrupt, worthless, with debts that far outweigh their capacity to service them.