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Prosecutors arrested two high-ranking officials of the Japanese Finance Ministry on Monday on charges of having accepted bribes from banks they were regulating.
Some opposition parties called on Finance Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka to take responsibility for the scandal by resigning. And early this morning, Mr. Mitsuzuka apologized for the incidents, but suggested that he would not step down.
The two officials arrested were charged with accepting the bribes not in cash, but in the form of food and entertainment worth the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars, from banks they had been in charge of inspecting.
Japanese banks customarily wine and dine customers and ministry officials, and the practice has been accepted for decades.
But the Finance Ministry has recently been under heavy criticism for mishandling the economy and for a banking crisis that has led to instability in the financial system. Four financial institutions shut down or went bankrupt in November, and volatility in the stock market has sharply increased. There has been growing ...
So cracking down now may help reduce the power and influence of the Finance Ministry, which has been independent to the point that it is regarded as virtually its own arm of Government.
It may also be a way to reassure the Japanese people, who want to see greater accountability at the ministry. Among the major criticisms have been the Finance Ministry's weak supervision and seeming inability to detect transgressions before these reach an enormous scale.
In November, for instance, after the collapse of Yamaichi Securities, the nation's fourth-largest brokerage house, the authorities said that Yamaichi had been hiding more than $2 billion in off-the-book liabilities that were likely to turn into financial losses.
In the scandal that resulted in Monday's arrests, prosecutors searched the offices and homes of Koichi Miyagawa, 53, and Toshimi Taniuchi, 49, who were accused of accepting bribes from 1994 to 1997 and then showing favor to the banks that entertained them. Mr. Miyagawa, chief inspector in the ministry's Financial Inspe...
He is also accused of buying a condominium at a discount of 8 percent through an Asahi Bank official acting as a broker.
From April 1995 to May 1997 alone, Asahi Bank officials are believed to have entertained Mr. Miyagawa at restaurants and golf courses on 18 occasions, spending $14,400 -- about $800 at a time. It is unclear whether those amounts included the costs of the bankers' meals, as well.
In return, the bank is believed to have received information on when and at which branches inspections would occur.
Mr. Taniuchi, 49, a senior official in the same department, is suspected, according to news reports in the leading Japanese dailies, of having received entertainment worth 2.3 million yen, or $18,500, from the Sanwa Bank and Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, the latter shut down in November. He is also suspected of having been ...
Sanwa is believed to have spent 1.61 million yen, or $12,900, on 40 occasions -- more than $300 on average.
Many business people have been upset that prosecutors are regarding meals and entertainment as bribes. It is customary in Japan for businesses to invite their business contacts to expensive restaurants, and the prices can be extraordinary.
The Finance Ministry has repeatedly warned its officials to be careful about accepting meals in exchange for information.
Prosecutors seem intent on pursuing such transgressions. Last week, another Finance Ministry official was arrested for having been entertained by Nomura Securities and then allegedly awarding bond-issuance work to Nomura. The Nomura official was arrested, too.
The Japanese stock market appeared to shrug off the scandal. At the midday break, the benchmark Nikkei index of 225 issues was slightly lower at 17,022.38, down 50.95 points, or three-tenths of 1 percent. On Monday, the Nikkei rose 1.7 percent.
Three important thinkers of the past 40 years—Alisdair MacIntyre, Robert Bellah and Charles Taylor—provide key terms for understanding how we have arrived at this historical moment.
Whatever else Trump represents, he has never stood for loyalty, for self-sacrifice or for traditional or conservative values.
Whatever else Trump represents, he has never stood for loyalty (except the unquestioning loyalty of others to himself), for self-sacrifice or for traditional or conservative values in the face of the moral relativism of Hollywood and coastal elites. Embraced by nearly half of voting Americans—including a majority of no...
In his seminal study of moral philosophy in 1981, After Virtue, MacIntyre offered an unsettling tale. “Imagine,” he wrote, “that the natural sciences were to suffer the effects of a catastrophe.” For some reason the masses turn against scientific knowledge and go on a rampage, burning scientific textbooks, smashing res...
The hypothesis which I wish to advance is that in the actual world which we inhabit the language of morality is in the same state of grave disorder as the language of natural science in the imaginary world which I described.… We possess indeed simulacra of morality.… But we have very largely, if not entirely, lost our ...
The idioms of management and therapy, MacIntyre contends, have thoroughly penetrated and colonized a host of other spheres, including education, politics and religion.
He identifies two modern types who in their professional roles are incapable of engaging in serious moral debate and yet have come to influence our moral thinking powerfully: the manager and the therapist. Both in their own way obliterate questions of moral ends, transforming all problems into matters purely of techniq...
Where MacIntyre used the term emotivism to name our moral predicament, in their classic 1985 study of American society, Habits of the Heart, the sociologist Robert Bellah and his co-writers identified two powerful strands of American thought that in some ways correspond with the managerial and therapeutic types: utilit...
While our political and economic life is dominated by the assumptions and vocabulary of utilitarian individualism, however, American culture is arguably even more strongly influenced by the second form of individualism, which arose in opposition to the drive toward ever greater efficiency and control. “Expressive indiv...
American-style individualism, Bellah argued, is at its root religious, flowing out of the idea of freedom of conscience first championed by radical Protestant sects like the Quakers.
In his 2007 magnum opus, A Secular Age, Charles Taylor similarly linked expressive individualism with consumerism and with the subordination of values to the demands of the market. There are traces of these developments as far back as 18th-century Romanticism, but Taylor sees a fundamental shift after World War II from...
Advertising and social media exploit our fears of isolation, binding us ever closer to one another, not in authentic community but in liturgies of consumption.
The new emphasis on private space has freed us from older relationships of mutual support, neighborliness and shared responsibility. But this expanded freedom to assert our personal “identities” comes at steep social and spiritual costs. The culture of authenticity is marked by growing distrust of social and political ...
Strip away Benjamin Franklin’s literary genius and still quasi-Christian concern for the relationship between pragmatic utility and the development of good character and we are left with The Art of the Deal.
Politicians regularly proclaim as an article of faith their abiding trust in the “wisdom of the American people,” in our collective common sense that in the end must always somehow see us through. But in our morally and spiritually exhausted “Weimar America,” in conservative commentator Rod Dreher’s phrase (that echoes...
Conservatives have long decried the relaxing of sexual ethics and the loss of codes of etiquette as markers of liberalism’s moral impoverishment and as political perils to Western civilization. Yet with the rise of Trumpism, they are themselves now deeply and irreversibly implicated in the expressivist turn. All of the...
The fight to save the soul of the G.O.P.
Today’s “conservatives”—who embraced Trump as their champion from out of a field of 17 Republican alternatives—are the heirs not of Edmund Burke so much as of Robespierre and the Jacobins, eager to smash the highest achievements of their forebears in the name of an inchoate appeal to something “greater.” This is not th...
In the final analysis, Trump’s revolt against the liberal order ironically manifests and exacerbates all the internal contradictions eating at the heart of the culture of authenticity. What his ruinous triumph has revealed in stark relief is how few authentic conservatives are left in our expressivist land. As the atmo...
I do not recognize Trump by the title chosen for this article nor by what is written about him. Trump can be an incredible boor who seems to lack self control a lot. He has not been the most moral person in the world. But the irony is that most of the criticism this author directs toward Trump, is more descriptive of t...
This is mainly an incoherent harangue. While the author does not like Trump, he certainly does not understand him or what brought him to power.
Try reading the article again. The author's critique extends to both houses, asserting that there are problems deeper than political division. It is your own version of political correctness that makes you hypersensitive to any criticism of the Swine President and your favorite of the two corrupt parties. My favorite p...
You judge without reason and create what is not there. I am very critical of Trump on lots of things. My comment lists several of a personal nature. However, individualism is not a valid criticism.
I did not list any policy issues since this was not brought up. That you do not like Trump is obvious from your comments. It makes anything you say about him irrelevant but it is always interesting to read the new adjectives and nouns you apply.
There is very little in this OP that is insightful or relevant. He misses completely the basic problem of the United States today. Maybe it people like the author who are part of the problem.
I read it twice. It was even more painful the second time. It is basically a screed and incoherent. The second time I made notes and the word "crock" was used a lot.
I think you just don't like what he says. He is quite coherent in describing the American Zeitgeist and how the Trump phenomenon fits in. Perhaps what you don't like is someone saying, not only does the emperor have no clothes, but the subjects are running around in their birthday suits as well.
No it is incoherent. Maybe you are confusing consistency with coherency. I understand why you like it. It is really anti-Trump but that does not make it coherent. Even the title is a meaningless criticism. Expressive individualism can be applied to just about any politician or successful person. Maybe the author is jea...
We need our moral compass - the Word of God - to get back on track in this country. Prior to Trump's stepping up to the plate, the ancient and reliable moral teachings of the Bible were suffocating, about to expire.
Donald Trump defends freedom of religion, preborn life, and natural marriage. His policies are providing jobs and a livelihood for many who had been locked into the welfare system.
Donald Trump is a rock enduring a deluge of criticism from the mainstream media, but following through with what he believes, which happens to correspond to the teachings of Sacred Scripture.
Jesus says, "Whoever is not against us is for us." He also says that if we come to him we are a new creation. Spurred by love of family, love of country, and the weight of his awesome responsibility as POTUS, a new man is leading us.
Even though he is at the crude beginning of this walk, we should not define him by his past that has been washed away.
Amazing – I never saw such a sarcastic description of POTUS Trump-like this comment! He’s the most amoral POTUS in the history of America. He never cares about any cause – all he has been doing is about himself, to make him looks good. He fails miserably to a majority of Americans. "You cannot fool everyone all the tim...
"...there is no more reason for faith in the collective wisdom and virtue of the demos than there is for faith in the wisdom and virtue of the leader whom the demos has already chosen—the hotelier from Manhattan with his golden palaces; his smash-mouth politics; his serial adulteries; his manifest lying about matters g...
I started with quoting something the author said above because I found that this description can be applied to many people, in particular many leaders in the Democratic party, such as Bill and Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as many far-left democrats and their supporters including the destroy-Trump media.
While I found this article interesting, it was full of assertion after assertion about how Trump is the personification of evil while quoting, almost incoherently, some authors most of whom the average person never heard of. Most importantly, there was nothing new here that most people who follow society and religion a...
Note that I do agree that our religious beliefs, norms and virtues are being lost to the ills of our secular society. However, let's get real here. Part of the blame also rests with the Christian, Catholic and Jewish religious organizations, and not merely with secular society and the people who are its leaders. We see...
Getting back to this article. The etiology of this problem is not Trumpism. If the author was honest and responsible, he should have written a more balanced article because the leaders of the democratic party are no better examples of encouraging and practicing moral norms and virtues than Trump. We all agree that our ...
Make no mistake about what I am saying. I don't like Trump's rhetoric and condemn many of his ill-conceived and irresponsible remarks. However, his policies have done more for our country compared to Obama or what Hilary would have done. I agree that Trump is not the ideal President and I wish he would tone down his rh...
When we negatively exaggerate the description of Trump as evil or use words such as swine in articles and comments then the ones who are persuaded are "not" his supports or even most of the few that are considered moderate and centrist. While the author did not explicitly say this, it is as though Trump is so evil and ...
Does anyone really believe that if Trump was not President, but Hillary Clinton, that this would have been the answer, or even a partial answer, to the loss of our religious beliefs, moral norms and virtues? I think not.
You make some interesting points but appear to have missed the main thrust of the article which refers to the irony whereby 'expressive individualism', so much a characteristic of liberal life, politics and culture, has, most noticeably under Trump, become a considerable force among conservatives. The article implies t...
FC - Thanks for your comments. I did not miss the irony. Let's face it, Trump is not the main stream establishment Republican. Trump is changing WDC and the Republican party and that is why he was elected. Some of what he had done is a good thing, and some things are not. However, if Trump's true beneficiaries end up b...
Trump's means to these ends can be questioned, but his goals are not evil. What can be questioned is whether there is another way to achieve his objectives. I believe there are, but unfortunately I am not Trump and this does not mean he is some kind of lunatic individualist.
As far as our individualistic culture is concerned, it infects all of us, namely conservatives, moderates and liberals, in various degrees. We are all the victims of consumerism, individualism, relativism and liberalism. Our faith demands we recognize how our culture influences our moral choices in life, and make adjus...
In different ways and in different forms individualism and relativism infects the Catholic Church as well. Bishops justified the cover up of sexual abusive priests and moved them around to sexually abuse again and again. All of this was relativized because it was better, in their view, to protect the Church from scanda...
Some of the positive things Trump has done has been good for America, and some of his means and rhetoric has been less than ideal. However, make no mistake about what I am saying. Depending on the Democratic candidate for President in 2020, I may, once again, not vote for Trump. We should all pray for him and our count...
Thanks again for your comments. Very thought provoking. On the basis of the last IPCC report dealing decisively with climate change is surely the preeminent issue of our age, if not any age. Politics and economy need to be worked out from there. For this we need more not less multilateralism, more not less community, a...
Before I label myself liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat or this or that, I value an honest attitude and a straightforward dealing with reasoned evidence. Are those the values of Donald Trump? What does reasoned evidence say?
Whether the issue is climate change, immigration or trade deals, the question is not "what does reasoned evidence say?" It is about the arguments made by those opposed to it and those that support it. The use of statistics and evidence can be misleading because they are only a partial view of the truth. This is true in...
I did not vote for Trump and I wish he would do thing differently. However, I am not going to chastise his values or character and agree that he is the personification of Satan as many of his critics do. The argument for and against Trump is far too polarized to discern the truth for most people, regardless if we are t...
I agree with much of what you write, though as I'm sure you will acknowledge, that the "use of statistics and evidence can be misleading" is not to say falsehoods cannot be detected. With regards climate change, trade-wars etc, however, serve as examples - the brute fact being that Donald Trump deals in fiction while p...
You might be right when you say arguments are "too polarized to discern the truth for most people". IMHO this should make us work harder to make the issues clearer, not be content with less.
The USPS is an abbreviation for the United States Postal Services which is a vast group of members contributing towards the development of the nation.
The author is as irrational and inconsistent with his accusations against Trump as the left media is with me, the Trump voter, who is more concerned about the murder of millions of vulnerable children in the womb than a crass word or comment. This deliberate misunderstanding also does not take into account I was once a...
I respect your achievements but feel very sad that you don't see through Trump's gambit and that he is telling you lies about all the big ticket items that will determine your welfare and that of those to come. I'm thinking of issues such as climate change, tariff policy, tax cuts, and the like - these turning on objec...
Trump's FIRST act after the elections is to sack the Attorney General. What is this 'expressive individualist' hiding?
This article also appeared in print, under the headline "The President of Expressive Individualism ," in the January 21, 2019 issue.
Ronald E. Osborn is an independent scholar and the author of Humanism and the Death of God: Searching for the Good After Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche (Oxford University Press, 2017).
►Chicago food truck owners could be allowed to cook on their trucks soon. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aldermen said the change will allow a lot more entrepreneurs to enter the business and promote the city’s culinary scene.
► After the mild winter some Illinois farmers thought this could be corn’s best year ever. Now thanks to the severe drought -- not so much. Still, some corn farms are doing better than others, but water has little to do with it.
►It's Friday and that means it's time for Weekender with Alison Cuddy. In this episode, Weekender heads to a block party, Steppenwolf and Learnapalooza!
And your WEATHER for today: cloudy early in the morning, then becoming partly cloudy in the early afternoon highs around 80 except in the mid to upper 70s along the lake shore. northeast winds 10 to 20 miles per hour. gusts up to 30 miles per hour in the morning. Then tonight, clear, lows in the lows to mid 60s, except...
`THE despair of tidy minds." This expression has long summed up the slippery, protean politics of Yugoslavia and its ethnic and religious disputes. In the past year, Yugoslavia has out-Balkanized even itself. The country has been to the brink of collapse nearly a dozen times. To secede or not to secede has been the que...
The most recent crisis follows efforts at political autonomy by the northern (Roman Catholic) republics of Croatia last summer, and Slovenia in February. These two want a loose Yugoslav federation, whereas the dominant republic of (Orthodox) Serbia wants tight Marxist centralization.
Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic is the 800-pound gorilla in this scenario, known by detractors as the "Saddam of Serbia." Anticommunist students and intellectuals in Serbia have been making life tough for Mr. Milosevic. But he is still able to manipulate Serbian nationalist sentiments, and uses the complaints of ...
In the past week, a major eruption of ethnic Serbs occurred in the 30-mile wide belt of Croatia known as Krajina. These Serbs vow to use whatever means necessary to secede from Croatia.
This clash is potentially explosive. It needs to be stopped. Krajina shares no border with Serbia. In the florid political rhetoric of the region, some Serbian officials threaten to invade Croatia to liberate their ethnic kin if Croatia actually does secede from Yugoslavia. An invasion would poison the well in the Balk...
The dispute over Krajina is a major distraction from the diplomacy and developments needed in Yugoslavia. It distracts from Mr. Markovic's desperate efforts to keep the union together, attract IMF and World Bank loans, and strengthen trade relations with the West. Most of the West, including the US, supports Markovic. ...
Matters need to return to the upward road of 10 days ago when, in a surprise meeting with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, Milosevic agreed to a series of dialogues with leaders of the other five republics. The agreement probably sprang from Milosevic's tarnished image at home. He'll no doubt try to use the new dispu...
Durgunoglu, A. & Goldenberg, C. (Eds.) (2011). Language and literacy development in bilingual settings. New York: Guilford.
Goldenberg, C. & Coleman, R. (2010). Promoting academic achievement among English Learners: A guide to the research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Goldenberg, C. (2004). Successful school change: Creating settings to improve teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.
Goldenberg, C. (July 14, 2015). Congress: Bilingualism Is Not a Handicap. Education Week Commentary.
Cha, K. & Goldenberg, C. (in press). The complex relationship between bilingual home language input and kindergarten children's Spanish and English oral proficiencies. Journal of Education Psychology.
Goldenberg, C., & Romeo, K. (in press). ESL vs. EFL learners: The benefits of combining language acquisition and explicit instruction approaches. In Wong, L. & Dubey-Jhaveri, A. (Eds.). English language education in a global world: Practices, issues, and challenges. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Goldenberg, C. (2015). How might existing language progressions help or hinder ELLs/emergent bilinguals in meeting the demands of the Common Core State Standards? What are some critiques of the ideology and use of language progressions? In G. Valdes, K. Menken, & M. Castro (Eds.), Common Core and ELLs/emergent bilingua...
Goldenberg, C. (2015). What do we know about second language acquisition in instructed settings? In G. Valdes, K. Menken, & M. Castro (Eds.), Common Core and ELLs/emergent bilinguals: A guide for all educators. Philadelphia: Caslon.
Goldenberg, C. Tolar, T., Reese, L., Francis, D., Ray, A., & Mejia-Arauz, R. (2014). How important is teaching phonemic awareness to children learning to read in Spanish? American Educational Research Journal, 51, 604-633.
Saunders, W., Goldenberg, C., & Marcelletti, D. (2013). Guidelines for English language development instruction. American Educator, 37 (2), 13-25, 38-39.
Coleman, R. & Goldenberg, C. (2012, February). The Common Core challenge: English Language Learners. Principal Leadership, 46-51.

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