Sweden! !Japan

[lsanderson]

Japan, Sweden Hold Bailout Lessons for US
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 13, 2009

Filed at 5:34 a.m. ET

TOKYO (AP) -- As the U.S. grapples with its banking crisis, President Barack Obama is pointing to Sweden and Japan as offering lessons for what the United States should -- and shouldn't -- do.

Both faced banking crises in the 1990s, but reacted differently.

Sweden moved quickly, nationalizing two banks and setting up an asset management company to take over bad debt. In contrast, Japan waited seven years before getting serious about bailing out its banks. The result: a ''lost decade'' of economic stagnation -- a fate the U.S. president says America must avoid.

On the surface, Sweden ''looks like a good model,'' Obama said at his first prime-time news conference Monday. But he cautioned that drawing parallels had limits: Sweden's banking sector is far smaller and the country's culture embraces a greater economic role for government.

Of Japan, Obama said: ''They kept on trying to paper over the problems. The markets sort of stayed up because the Japanese government kept on pumping money in. But eventually, nothing happened and they didn't see any growth whatsoever.''More