Events, Verisoph

September 1986 to May 1989 Fukui heads the Banking Department during the bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. From September 1986 to May 1989 Toshihiko Fukui headed the Bank of Japan's Banking Department, administering the window guidance credit controls during the bubble years while being groomed as the next 'prince.' ●●●

1986 Mieno warns the Diet about excess money ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1986, as the bubble began under his own window guidance, Deputy Governor Mieno testified to the Diet that he was worried about excess money (kane amari) in the economy, creating what the author calls an alibi. ●●

7 April 1986 Maekawa report submitted to the prime minister ai_extracted 1 cit. After nineteen meetings over five months, Maekawa's advisory group submitted its recommendations on April 7, 1986, calling for a historical transformation of Japan's economic structure toward domestic demand-led growth and deregulation. ●●●●

c. 1986 Report documents torture in the Nyayo House basement 6 cit. The commission documented how political detainees were tortured in basement cells of Nyayo House in central Nairobi during the Moi era. Survivors described beatings, water-filled cells, and forced confessions used against suspected dissidents. The final report named the torture as part of a deliberate system to silence opposition. politics / society ●●

1986 CIA establishes its Counterterrorist Center ai_extracted 1 cit. On February 1, 1986, the CIA created its Counterterrorist Center at Langley, with Duane Clarridge as first director. It grew from Casey's push for an aggressive response to the Middle East hostage crises but soon shifted toward analysis after the Iran-Contra scandal. ●●

1986 Mujahedin fire the first Stinger missiles, downing Soviet helicopters ai_extracted 1 cit. On September 26, 1986, near Jalalabad, a rebel team led by Engineer Ghaffar fired the CIA's newly supplied Stinger missiles and destroyed three Soviet helicopter gunships. The shoulder-fired heat-seeking weapon soon became the war's most significant battlefield development, forcing Soviet aircraft to fly higher. ●●●

1986 Gorbachev calls Afghanistan a 'bleeding wound' ai_extracted 1 cit. Early in 1986 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev publicly called the Afghan war a bleeding wound, and by that November he had privately set a goal of withdrawing Soviet troops within one or two years while leaving a friendly, neutral Afghanistan behind. ●●

1987 Record Japanese long-term capital outflows ai_extracted 1 cit. Japanese long-term capital outflows exploded from $65 billion in 1985 to a record $137 billion in 1987, nearly twice the record current account surplus, dominating world capital flows. ●●●

February 1987 to May 1989 Official discount rate held at 2.5 percent ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan maintained a low official discount rate of 2.5 percent from February 1987 to May 1989, often cited as the cause of the bubble, though the author argues interest rates had no stable relationship with asset prices. ●●●

February 1987 Executive Board cuts the discount rate to 2.5 percent ai_extracted 1 cit. In February 1987, under Ministry of Finance pressure, the Bank of Japan's Executive Board decided to reduce the official discount rate to the low rate of 2.5 percent. ●●●

July 1987 Fukui defends expanding bank loans in Nikkei interview ai_extracted 1 cit. In July 1987, just after setting off the bubble as head of the Banking Department, Toshihiko Fukui told the Nikkei Financial Daily that the BoJ would not tighten loan quantities, justifying loan expansion by the need for long-term structural adjustment. ●●

May 1987 Second Maekawa report announced ai_extracted 1 cit. An updated Maekawa report, expanded from eleven to forty-one pages, reiterated the first report's goals with detailed concrete changes and a timetable for structural transformation by the year 2000. ●●●

July 1987 Fukui endorses continued monetary easing to implement structural reform ai_extracted 1 cit. In July 1987, shortly after the second Maekawa report, Toshihiko Fukui, head of the department implementing window guidance, said the right central bank policy for structural transformation was to continue monetary easing and expand bank loans. ●●

1987 Window guidance extended to foreign-currency loans ai_extracted 1 cit. From 1987 the Bank of Japan's credit controls were also imposed on non-yen (impact) loans, which previously had only been reported. ●●

December 1987 to 1993 The First Intifada 2 cit. A Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule began in 1987, marked by protests, strikes and stone-throwing met with military force. It reshaped the conflict and helped lead to peace talks. politics / society ●●●

1987 Battle of Jaji makes bin Laden's name among Arab jihadists ai_extracted 1 cit. On April 17, 1987, Soviet forces attacked Osama bin Laden's fortified compound at Jaji near the Pakistani border. Bin Laden and about fifty Arab volunteers held out for days, and the fight, chronicled by Arab journalists, launched his public reputation as a warrior and his global media campaign. ●●●

1988 Asymmetric cross-border acquisitions of 1988 ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1988 Japanese companies acquired 315 firms abroad while foreigners bought only 11 firms in Japan, illustrating how cross shareholdings kept corporate Japan closed to foreign investment. ●●

1988 to 1989 Window guidance begins tightening before Mieno's governorship ai_extracted 1 cit. Window guidance was already tightening in 1988 and 1989, well before Mieno officially became governor, while Governor Sumita knew little about the policy reversal. ●●●

June 1988 Third Maekawa report announced ai_extracted 1 cit. A third version of the Maekawa report was announced in June 1988 under the title "The New Economic Plan, The Japan that Lives Together with the World." ●●

1988 Geneva Accords set the terms of the Soviet withdrawal ai_extracted 1 cit. On April 14, 1988, Afghanistan's communist government, Pakistan, the U.S., and the Soviet Union signed the Geneva Accords formalizing the Soviet pullout. The mujahedin were excluded, and under a formula called "positive symmetry" the CIA kept arming them as long as Moscow supplied Kabul. ●●●

1988 President Zia and the U.S. ambassador die in a plane crash ai_extracted 1 cit. On August 17, 1988, Pakistani dictator Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq died when his C-130 crashed after a tank demonstration near Bhawalpur. Also killed were ISI chief General Akhtar, U.S. ambassador Arnold Raphel, and much of Pakistan's senior military brass; the cause was never established. ●●

1988 Kibaki is dropped as Vice President and moved to Health 1 cit. After the 1988 elections, Moi dropped Kibaki as Vice President and appointed him Minister for Health. This demotion pushed Kibaki further from Moi's inner circle, but he did not immediately resign. He stayed in government until the return of multiparty politics opened a different route. politics ●●●●

1989 Yasushi Mieno becomes Bank of Japan governor ai_extracted 1 cit. Yasushi Mieno became governor of the Bank of Japan in 1989, with Haruo Maekawa having become governor ten years earlier; both had long been tipped as certain successors. ●●●

1989 Peak of the Japanese asset bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. By 1989 speculative credit had pushed asset prices to extremes: the land surrounding the Imperial Palace in Tokyo had the same market value as the entire state of California. ●●●

1989 End of the Showa era ai_extracted 1 cit. The Showa era, the official calendar of Emperor Hirohito's reign, ended in 1989, sixty-four years after it began; Hirohito had remained in office after 1945, exchanging his military uniform for civilian clothes. ●●●

December 1989 Nikkei peaks at all-time high of 38,915 ai_extracted 1 cit. After rising an average 30 percent per year from 1984, the Nikkei 225 stock index peaked at an all-time high of 38,915 yen in December 1989. ●●●●

1989 Bubble lending reaches 27 percent of all bank loans ai_extracted 1 cit. By the end of 1989, loans to real estate, construction, and nonbank financial institutions used for speculation totaled 27 percent of all bank loans, some 98.9 trillion yen or 25 percent of nominal GDP. ●●●

1989 Banks suddenly restrict loan growth ai_extracted 1 cit. In mid-1989 Japanese banks suddenly restricted loan growth, cutting off the flow of new money into asset markets; stock prices peaked half a year later and land prices stopped rising. ●●●

December 1989 to 1994 Mieno becomes BoJ governor ai_extracted 1 cit. Yasushi Mieno served as governor of the Bank of Japan from December 1989 to 1994, determined to end the bubble he blamed for dividing Japan into haves and have-nots. ●●●

December 1989 Mieno's 'Christmas present' rate hike ends the bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. Only a fortnight after becoming governor, Mieno raised the official discount rate in December 1989, the infamous Christmas present; asset prices began tumbling in 1990 and land prices eventually fell around 80 percent. ●●●●

June 1989 BoJ tightens window guidance and ends the bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan ended the bubble by suddenly tightening its window guidance credit controls in June 1989, an act the author identifies as the trigger of the recession of the 1990s. ●●●●

1989 Death of Haruo Maekawa ai_extracted 1 cit. Former Bank of Japan governor Haruo Maekawa died in 1989, but his chosen successors Mieno and Fukui remained in power at the central bank. ●●

1989 Mieno appointed governor of the Bank of Japan ai_extracted 1 cit. Yasushi Mieno was appointed official governor of the Bank of Japan in 1989, with observers noting parallels between his career and that of former governor Sasaki. ●●●

July 1989 to 28 July 1990 Structural Impediments Initiative ai_extracted 1 cit. The bilateral U.S.-Japan Structural Impediments Initiative was launched in July 1989 and released its final report on July 28, 1990, detailing U.S. structural reform demands. ●●●

9 November 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall 1 cit. East Germany opens its border and crowds tear at the Berlin Wall. Communist rule across Eastern Europe collapses within months, ending the Cold War division of the continent. politics ●●●●●

1989 The Washington Consensus is named 1 cit. Economist John Williamson coined the term Washington Consensus to describe a set of market-oriented policies favored by the IMF, World Bank, and US Treasury. The label came to stand, often critically, for the whole adjustment agenda. economy / politics ●●●●●

1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. The Berlin Wall, the greatest symbol of the Cold War, began to crack. The chief of the CIA's Soviet division watched it happen on CNN, with no worthwhile spies left to report from Moscow. ●●

1989 Soviet Troops Withdraw from Afghanistan ai_extracted 2 cit. The last Soviet military units withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, crossing back into Soviet territory after nearly a decade of occupation. ●●

1989 Pittston miners' strike begins ai_extracted 1 cit. In a notable illustration of the applicability of the propaganda model, the nine-month-long Pittston miners’ strike that began in April 1989 was accorded much less attention, and less friendly treatme ●●

November 1989 The screening exercise and the pink card 3 cit. The government ran a screening drive that forced ethnic Somalis to appear before committees and prove they were citizens, singling them out by ethnicity while others were not screened. Those cleared were issued a special pink verification card they had to carry on top of the national ID. People judged non-citizens were detained and many were deported, and the pink card became a lasting mark of second-class status. politics / society ●●●

1989 NCPB turns maize into state food politics 1 cit. The National Cereals and Produce Board system made maize a political crop: depots, agents, prices, payments, imports, storage and strategic reserves all ran through state machinery. This gave farmers a buyer and the country a grain buffer, but it also made maize vulnerable to patronage, delayed payments and politically timed supply decisions. economy / politics / society ●●●●

1990 Collapse of the Japanese bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. From 1990 onward bank loan growth slowed, asset prices fell, speculators went bankrupt, and about 100 trillion yen of loans turned into bad debts, pushing Japan into its worst recession since the Great Depression. ●●●●

1990 Japan becomes the world's top direct investor ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1990 Japanese foreign direct investment reached $48 billion, overtaking portfolio investment, and Japan became the world's number one provider of direct investment. ●●●

March 1990 Unemployment hits record low of 2 percent ai_extracted 1 cit. At the height of the boom's labor shortage, Japanese unemployment fell to a record low of 2 percent in March 1990. ●●

January 1990 to December 1994 Asset prices collapse and the bust begins ai_extracted 1 cit. From January 1990 to December 1994 Japanese stock and land prices halved, bankruptcies soared to postwar highs, several banks and securities firms became insolvent, and the boom turned into the biggest slump since the 1930s. ●●●●

1990 Nikkei falls 32 percent in one year ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1990 the Nikkei 225 index dropped 32 percent and land prices began a sharp decline, with some speculative commercial plots losing 80 percent or more of their market value. ●●●

1990 to 1999 Decade of fiscal stimulus packages ai_extracted 1 cit. During the 1990s the Japanese government implemented over a dozen large-scale spending packages totaling more than 145 trillion yen, without producing a sustained recovery. ●●●

1990 Mieno publicly defies the Finance Ministry ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1990 Governor Mieno engaged in a rare high-profile disagreement with the Finance Ministry, which opposed monetary tightening, and stuck to his tight money policy throughout his term. ●●

1990 Ministry of Finance total volume regulation of bank lending ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1990 the Ministry of Finance imposed its sōryō kisei, a rare total volume regulation of bank lending, though it was administered by the Bank of Japan and followed the BoJ's earlier tightening of 1988-89. ●●●

1990 Mandela invokes Kimathi on his first visit to Kenya ai_extracted 1 cit. On his first visit to Kenya in July 1990, Nelson Mandela invoked Kimathi in a speech at Kasarani Stadium, saying the image of fighters like Kimathi had sustained him through 27 years of imprisonment. He lamented the absence of a proper burial site for Kimathi. ●●

February 1990 The murder of Foreign Minister Robert Ouko 5 cit. Foreign Minister Robert Ouko disappeared from his rural home and was found dead days later near Got Alila hill, shot and his body burned. A respected figure seen as a possible reformer, his killing shocked the country and drew British investigators. The perpetrators were never brought to justice, and the case became a symbol of impunity that hardened opposition to the government. politics ●●●

c. 1990 Mara group ranches are subdivided into private titles 2 cit. Group ranches around the Maasai Mara, including major blocks such as Koiyaki and Lemek, came under pressure to subdivide into individual parcels. Many landowners wanted title deeds, inheritance security and a direct share of rising land values, while others feared committee capture and elite dealing. The result fragmented open grazing land into marketable private plots, making it easier to sell, fence, farm or lease the land. economy / politics / society ●●●●

February 1990 Scotland Yard investigates Robert Ouko's murder 1 cit. After Foreign Minister Robert Ouko was found dead in February 1990, Kenya asked detectives from London's Metropolitan Police, commonly known through Scotland Yard, to investigate. The point is not that London solved Kenyan politics. The point is that a politically charged killing was seen as too compromised for domestic police credibility alone. politics / society ●●●

1991 Japan becomes a net capital importer ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1991 Japan suddenly turned from being the biggest net capital exporter ever to a net importer of capital, a reversal that defied traditional economic models. ●●●

1991 Japanese foreign investment tide reverses ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1991, even as the current account headed for record surpluses over $90 billion, Japan's long-term capital outflows vanished and the country recorded $40 billion of net inflows, its first in more than a decade, becoming a net seller of foreign assets. ●●●

1991 Japan slides into its longest postwar recession ai_extracted 1 cit. With paralyzed banks shrinking credit creation, Japan's economy slid from 1991 into the longest and deepest postwar recession since the 1930s, with unemployment at postwar records and probably more than five million jobs lost. ●●●●

July 1991 BoJ begins cutting the official discount rate ai_extracted 1 cit. Starting with the first reduction in July 1991, when the rate stood at 6 percent, the Bank of Japan lowered the official discount rate ten times during the 1990s, reaching 1.75 percent by September 1993 and 0.5 percent by September 1995. ●●●

1991 to 1992 U.S. recession of 1991 and rapid Fed reflation ai_extracted 1 cit. After a credit boom turned to bust and bad debts paralyzed U.S. banks, real GDP contracted about 1 percent in 1991; the Federal Reserve printed money from 1990 onward and the economy had fully recovered by 1992. ●●●

July 1991 BoJ announces immediate abolition of window guidance ai_extracted 1 cit. In July 1991, shortly after publishing an English-language report claiming window guidance had not been applied since 1982, the Bank of Japan announced that window guidance would be abolished immediately. ●●●

1991 EMEAP central bank club formed ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1991 the eleven central banks of the East Asia and Pacific region formed the Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP), a low-profile club whose deputy governors met twice a year. ●●

1991 Bank of Japan declares window guidance abolished ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1991 the chief of the Bank of Japan's Banking Department, Tamura, told the press that the abolition of window guidance was final and that it would never be reinstituted. ●●●

July 1991 to September 1995 Bank of Japan begins 1990s rate-cutting cycle ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan lowered the official discount rate ten times during the 1990s, starting with the first cut in July 1991 from 6 percent, reaching 1.75 percent by September 1993 and 0.5 percent by September 1995. ●●●

1991 U.S. and Soviet Union agree to end arms supplies to Afghanistan ai_extracted 2 cit. On September 13, 1991, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin pledged a mutual cutoff of all arms to Najibullah and the Afghan rebels, effective January 1, 1992. The superpower agreement ended official support for both sides in the Afghan war. ●●

December 1991 Return to multiparty democracy 1 cit. Under domestic pressure, symbolized by the 1990 Saba Saba protests, and with Western donors freezing aid, parliament repealed Section 2A in December 1991 and legalized opposition parties. Moi won the 1992 and 1997 elections against a divided opposition, amid vote rigging and state-linked ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley that killed and displaced thousands. Multiparty politics returned, but on a tilted field that kept KANU in power. politics ●●

January 1991 The fall of Siad Barre and the collapse of the state 1 cit. In January 1991 rebel factions drove Siad Barre out of Mogadishu, ending his rule and, with it, effective central government in Somalia. No group could replace him, and victorious militias split along clan lines and turned on each other. The country fell into warlordism and famine, becoming a byword for state collapse for the next two decades. politics / war ●●●

1991 Land clashes tear the Rift Valley at the return of multiparty politics 8 cit. As Kenya legalized opposition parties in 1991 and moved toward its first multiparty election in 1992, violence broke out in the Rift Valley between Kalenjin and Maasai groups and Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, and Kisii settlers. At least a thousand people were killed and around two hundred thousand were driven from their homes. Human rights groups and later inquiries concluded the clashes were organized and encouraged by figures around the Moi government to punish opposition areas and clear land. The death toll and displacement are documented; the finding that officials instigated the violence comes from those inquiries and rights reports. politics / society / war ●●●

1991 The Dadaab refugee complex opens 4 cit. As Somalia's civil war drove people across the border, Kenya set up camps at Dadaab that grew into one of the largest refugee complexes in the world. The camps deepened official suspicion of the whole north-east and blurred, in the state's eyes, the line between refugees and Kenyan Somali citizens. Dadaab became central to how the region was policed and governed. politics / society ●●●

December 1991 Kibaki resigns from KANU and launches the Democratic Party 1 cit. In December 1991 Kibaki resigned from KANU and two days later launched the Democratic Party after the return of multiparty politics. The move made him a major opposition figure, but not inside FORD. That separate route mattered because the opposition entered 1992 divided. politics ●●●●●

1991 New Keynesian economics answers the market-clearing critique 2 cit. By the 1980s and early 1990s, New Keynesian economists rebuilt parts of Keynesian macroeconomics with microfoundations: sticky prices, imperfect competition, credit frictions, coordination failures and other reasons markets may not clear quickly. The result was not old Keynesianism restored unchanged, but a new mainstream synthesis. economy / science ●●●●

c. 1991 Uhuru marries Margaret Gakuo and forms the private first-family household 2 cit. Uhuru married Margaret Gakuo around the start of the 1990s; CIDOB places the marriage in 1991 and later profiles describe the couple as parents of three children: Jomo, Ngina and Jaba. Margarets own background matters politically too: Kianda School, Kenyatta University, education training, and the Gakuo railway-administration family. Uhuru was not only Jomo son; he also entered another elite household network. culture / politics / society ●●●

1992 to 1999 Bank of Japan monetary contractions of the 1990s ai_extracted 1 cit. At several junctures in the 1990s, including 1992, 1993, early 1995, and much of 1999, the Bank of Japan actively reduced the amount of money circulating in the economy, aborting emerging recoveries. ●●●

1992 Credit crunch hits small firms ai_extracted 1 cit. As banks burdened with bad debts grew risk averse in the early 1990s, they cut lending to small and medium-sized firms, which suffered a credit crunch from 1992; unemployment began rising and consumption slumped. ●●●

1992 to 1994 Four massive fiscal stimulus packages ai_extracted 1 cit. Between 1992 and 1994 the Japanese government added four large fiscal stimulus packages totaling 45 trillion yen to regular spending, but without central bank credit expansion they failed to produce a recovery and only increased government debt. ●●●

November 1992 Bush loses reelection amid economic pessimism ai_extracted 1 cit. In November 1992 George Bush lost his bid for reelection to Clinton, with prevailing pessimism about the U.S. economy considered an important reason. ●●

1992 Maastricht Treaty lays foundations for European monetary union ai_extracted 1 cit. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 laid the foundations for monetary union in Europe and defined the role of a totally independent European Central Bank, becoming the model for central bank independence worldwide. ●●●●

1992 "One Market, One Money" study published ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1992 the European Commission published its commissioned study "One Market, One Money," which purported to demonstrate that central bank independence leads to low inflation and served as the scientific basis for the Maastricht Treaty. ●●

1992 Japan's decade of fiscal stimulation packages ai_extracted 1 cit. Beginning in 1992, Japan implemented ten fiscal stimulation packages totaling 146 trillion yen, with government spending contributing almost half of economic growth in the 1990s. ●●●

1992 High-powered money contracts despite falling rates ai_extracted 1 cit. Although interest rates had been falling since 1991, the Bank of Japan's supply of high-powered money contracted for most of 1992, leading economist Iwata to warn that the central bank would create a recession unless it expanded the money supply. ●●

1992 Sharp reduction in Japanese credit creation begins ai_extracted 1 cit. The author identifies a sharp reduction in credit creation beginning in 1992, triggered by bad debts in the banking system, as the cause of Japan's recession. ●●●

1992 Berman and Lonsdale name moral ethnicity and political tribalism 1 cit. In their study 'Unhappy Valley', Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale drew a distinction between moral ethnicity, the everyday sense of belonging and mutual duty within a community, and political tribalism, the use of ethnic identity by elites as a weapon to grab and hold state power. In their reading tribalism is not ancient hatred but a modern political tool built on colonial foundations. It is an interpretation, attributed to the two historians, and one of the most cited frames in the field. The publication is a documented fact. politics / society ●●

1992 Najibullah falls and Massoud takes Kabul as civil war begins ai_extracted 1 cit. In April 1992 the communist government of Najibullah collapsed. Ahmed Shah Massoud outmaneuvered his rival Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and entered Kabul, but the victory dissolved into a devastating civil war among the mujahedin factions that would wreck the capital. ●●●

c. 1992 FORD forms then fractures ahead of the vote 1 cit. The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, or FORD, had drawn veteran politicians and younger activists into a broad opposition front. As the election neared it split, mainly into FORD-Asili under Kenneth Matiba and FORD-Kenya under Oginga Odinga, while Mwai Kibaki led a separate party. The division handed the ruling party a decisive advantage. politics ●●

September 1992 Kiliku committee calls the 1992 clashes political 2 cit. The parliamentary select committee chaired by Kennedy Kiliku reported on ethnic clashes in western Kenya and other areas in September 1992. Later summaries of the report say it treated the violence as politically motivated, tied to provincial officials and politicians, and not simply a spontaneous tribal eruption. The report was rejected by the KANU parliament, leaving the same pattern of violence, denial and impunity to recur. politics / society / war ●●●

29 December 1992 Kibaki loses the 1992 presidential election 1 cit. Kibaki ran as the Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 1992 general election and came third behind Moi and Kenneth Matiba. Official biographical accounts give him a little over one million votes, about 19.5 percent. The result made the cost of opposition fragmentation visible. politics ●●●●

1993 Mieno links the recession to structural transformation ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1993, with the recession underway, Governor Mieno said the downturn was making everyone conscious of the need to implement the transformation envisaged by the Maekawa report. ●●

1993 Telecommunications sector deregulated ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1993 Japan deregulated its telecommunications sector, creating a boom in mobile phones and a dramatic rise in information services employment. ●●

1993 Hosokawa administration reforms the electoral system ai_extracted 1 cit. The 1993 Hosokawa administration changed Japan's electoral system, shifting political power away from over-weighted rural constituencies toward city voters. ●●●

1993 Rice market forced open ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1993 Japan's rice market was opened to imports after the government reduced official rice stocks to a postwar record low, letting bad weather create a shortage that swung public opinion toward liberalization. ●●

1993 Thailand deregulates capital account and creates the BIBF ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1993 Thailand aggressively deregulated its capital account and established the Bangkok International Banking Facility, allowing Thai corporations and banks to borrow from abroad for the first time in the postwar era; Korea and Indonesia adopted similar policies around the same time. ●●●

1993 to 1996 Surge of private capital inflows into Asia ai_extracted 1 cit. After capital account deregulation and central bank incentives, net private capital inflows into Asia surged from 54.3 billion dollars in 1993 to 98.3 billion dollars in 1996, largely as short-term foreign borrowing. ●●

1993 Japan's 1993 rice crisis ai_extracted 1 cit. After the government ran down its rice stockpiles to 194,000 tons by 1993, a bad harvest that year produced a widely covered rice crisis, allowing emergency imports of foreign rice and weakening domestic rice farmers. ●●

1993 Mir Amal Kasi shoots CIA employees outside Langley ai_extracted 1 cit. On January 25, 1993, Pakistani Mir Amal Kasi opened fire on CIA employees waiting at the entrance to the agency's Langley headquarters, killing two and wounding three, then fled to Pakistan. The CIA devoted much of its remaining Afghan network to hunting him. ●●

1993 Ramzi Yousef bombs the World Trade Center ai_extracted 1 cit. On February 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef, trained in Afghan jihadist camps, detonated a truck bomb beneath the World Trade Center, killing six and injuring about a thousand. His network of "ad hoc" mobile jihadists marked, to CIA analysts, a new kind of stateless terrorism. ●●●

1994 to 1995 Credit creation turns negative and nominal GDP shrinks ai_extracted 1 cit. Bank credit creation turned negative in late 1994, producing negative nominal GDP growth in early 1995, the first such contraction in postwar history and the first since 1931. ●●●

1994 to March 1995 Record foreign exchange intervention to weaken the yen ai_extracted 1 cit. In late 1994 MoF turned to exchange rate policy, ordering the BoJ to buy dollars: $7 billion in the second half of 1994 and $19 billion in February and March 1995, lifting Japan's reserves to a world-leading $131 billion. ●●●

December 1994 Matsushita appointed governor with Fukui as deputy ai_extracted 1 cit. In December 1994 MoF alumnus Yasuo Matsushita succeeded Mieno as Bank of Japan governor, with BoJ insider Toshihiko Fukui as deputy governor; the author reports Matsushita was shielded from decisions on credit creation. ●●

1994 Mieno retires and lobbies for a new Bank of Japan Law ai_extracted 1 cit. After retiring in 1994, former governor Mieno devoted much of his public life to lobbying in speeches and meetings for a change in the Bank of Japan Law. ●●

1994 Taliban emerge in Kandahar under Mullah Omar ai_extracted 1 cit. The Taliban first surfaced as a small vigilante militia near Kandahar in the spring and summer of 1994, funded by about $250,000 from local businessmen and led by the one-eyed cleric Mullah Mohammed Omar. They promised to disarm the predatory warlords who had made the roads lawless. ●●●

1994 Taliban seize the city of Kandahar ai_extracted 1 cit. In November 1994, aided by a captured ISI weapons dump at Spin Boldak, the Taliban took the entire city of Kandahar in about a day. Mullah Omar occupied the governor's headquarters and the movement soon controlled the airport, tanks, and MiG fighters. ●●●

c. 1994 Displaced families are blocked from returning after the 1990s clashes 2 cit. After the first multiparty election cycle, many families driven from Rift Valley and western Kenya could not safely return to farms and homes. Human Rights Watch documented repeated attacks on returnees, security-operation zones around places such as Burnt Forest, Molo and Londiani, and state harassment of displaced people and relief workers. The point is structural: election violence changed settlement patterns and then made return dangerous. politics / society / war ●●●