ogm--
<< "...Japan is a very good example of that. Their yields are almost zero, and still no borrowers. Banks still sitting on a huge pile of bad debt."
Actually I read a story in the WSJ about 2 weeks ago to the effect that the problems are in the rear view mirror for the Japanese banks. WSJ tends to be kind of an economic cheerleader, but I think after all this time, the banks in the land of the rising sun may indeed have written off most, if not all, of their bad real estate loans. Don't forget that the Japanese goverment arranged a few shotgun weddings between weak and strong banks and done other things to help them beef up their balance sheets. It wouldn't surprise me too much if they were pretty healthy as the WSJ claims.
schloss