Events, Verisoph

March 1995 Yen hits postwar high of 79.75 ai_extracted 2 cit. In March 1995 the Bank of Japan oversterilized the Ministry of Finance's record foreign exchange intervention, sending the yen to its postwar high of 79.75 per dollar and dealing a severe blow to the economy. ●●●

1995 Yen surges to around 80 per dollar ai_extracted 1 cit. By mid-1995 the yen had risen to around 80 to the dollar, its peak coming in April 1995, squeezing exporters as Japan's recession dragged on. ●●●

19 April 1995 Yen hits historic high of 79.75 per dollar ai_extracted 1 cit. Despite unprecedented intervention, the yen rose 20 percent from January to April 1995 and hit a historic high of 79.75 to the dollar on April 19, 1995, which the author attributes to the BoJ's sharp reduction of credit creation. ●●●

1995 Unemployment reaches a postwar high ai_extracted 1 cit. In the first quarter of 1995 Japanese unemployment reached a postwar high, with the actual number of jobless probably topping five million by early 1996 and recession-related suicides also at a postwar high. ●●●

1995 Japan's overseas production exceeds exports ai_extracted 1 cit. In financial year 1995, for the first time, Japan produced more abroad than it exported from its own shores, reflecting the mass relocation of factories driven by the strong yen. ●●

April 1995 Far-reaching deregulation package announced ai_extracted 1 cit. In April 1995, after the yen's historic high of 80 to the dollar and amid economic slump, reformers broke bureaucratic resistance and a deregulation package of one thousand items was announced, followed later that year by a Deregulation White Paper. ●●●

1995 Product liability law favors consumers ai_extracted 1 cit. Japan's 1995 product liability law explicitly favored consumers for the first time, placing the burden of proof on manufacturers in disputes. ●●

1995 to September 1998 First Japanese bond bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. Japan's first bond bubble began in early 1995 with benchmark yields at 4.7 percent and lasted until September 1998, by which time yields had fallen four hundred basis points to 0.7 percent, giving large banks significant capital gains. ●●

1995 Oklahoma City bombing rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. A bomb destroyed the federal headquarters in Oklahoma City, killing 169 people. It was the deadliest attack on American territory since Pearl Harbor. ●●

1995 Lewa Downs ranch becomes the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy 3 cit. The Craig family converts the whole of Lewa Downs, a former colonial cattle ranch of roughly 62,000 acres, into the not-for-profit Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Lewa becomes a flagship of the model in which a settler-era ranch is reworked as a wildlife and tourism enterprise. It records strong rhino and elephant numbers and funds schools and clinics in nearby communities. economy / environment ●●●

1995 Taliban capture Herat and turn toward Kabul ai_extracted 1 cit. When Herat fell to the Taliban in September 1995, the movement controlled all of southern Afghanistan. Backed by Pakistani intelligence, weapons, and volunteers from border madrassas, Mullah Omar's militia then announced its intention to march on Kabul. ●●

1995 Riyadh bombing by bin Laden-inspired Afghan veterans ai_extracted 1 cit. In November 1995 a bombing in Riyadh, carried out by Afghan-war veterans inspired by bin Laden, caught Saudi intelligence by surprise. Prince Turki's service had been focused almost entirely on Iranian and Shiite threats, leaving the Sunni jihadist danger underestimated. ●●

c. 1995 The cut-flower boom around Lake Naivasha 6 cit. From the 1990s Kenya became one of the world's largest exporters of cut flowers, most grown around Lake Naivasha and flown to European markets. Horticulture joined tea and coffee as a top foreign-exchange earner. It extended, rather than changed, the pattern of exporting fresh raw produce and importing finished goods. diplomacy / economy ●●

1996 Brief recovery of 1996 ai_extracted 1 cit. Unexpectedly, the Japanese economy staged a sudden recovery in 1996, growing around 4 percent, but the upturn was not sustained and the economy slumped again in 1997 and 1998. ●●

1996 Big Bang financial deregulation conceded ai_extracted 1 cit. By late 1996 the Ministry of Finance had lost the battle over regulation policy and had to concede full-blown deregulation of the financial sector, known as the Big Bang, which abolished the license system. ●●●

19 July 1996 Landmark EMEAP governors meeting in Tokyo ai_extracted 1 cit. On July 19, 1996, the Bank of Japan hosted a landmark meeting of all EMEAP governors in Tokyo, after which cooperation tightened to include annual governor-level meetings and working groups, with the Bank of Japan as temporary secretariat. ●●

1996 Greenspan's irrational exuberance speech ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1996 Fed chairman Alan Greenspan gave his famous speech on irrational exuberance, publicly suggesting he wanted to slow the economy even as the Fed kept increasing credit creation. ●●

31 May 1996 Tokyo High Court rules against bid-rigging ai_extracted 1 cit. On May 31, 1996 the Tokyo High Court issued a landmark decision against bid-rigging in electrical equipment installation work ordered by the Japan Sewage Works Agency. ●●

1996 Taliban Captures Kabul and Takes Control of Afghanistan ai_extracted 2 cit. Taliban forces entered Kabul on September 27, 1996, establishing control over Afghanistan with support from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Osama bin Laden. ●●

1996 Mamdani publishes 'Citizen and Subject' 1 cit. Mahmood Mamdani argued that colonial states split their populations in two, ruling settlers and elites as citizens under civil law while ruling Africans as subjects under a tribal customary law run by appointed chiefs. In this reading, indirect rule made ethnicity the very basis of local power and left a bifurcated state that outlasted independence. It is an influential interpretation of the colonial legacy, attributed to Mamdani, and it frames much of the debate on tribalism in Africa. The book's publication is a documented fact. politics / society ●●

1996 Bin Laden returns to Afghanistan ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 1996, expelled from Sudan and stripped of Saudi citizenship, Osama bin Laden flew into Jalalabad on his own jet with scores of Arab radicals. Afghanistan's collapsed state gave him a sanctuary from which to organize violence against the United States. ●●●

1996 Bin Laden issues his declaration of war on America ai_extracted 1 cit. In August 1996, from Afghanistan, bin Laden publicly issued his "Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," targeting the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and calling on followers to attack Americans and Israelis. ●●

1997 New Bank of Japan Law proposed ai_extracted 1 cit. The new Bank of Japan Law was proposed in 1997 as part of Prime Minister Hashimoto's administrative reform program. Deputy governor Toshihiko Fukui lobbied press and politicians in its favor. ●●●

1997 Asian financial crisis ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1997 investors pulled out of Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia while central banks forced commercial banks to restrict credit; the asset bubbles burst and by late 1997 all three countries were insolvent. ●●●●

1997 Bill to revise the Bank of Japan Law submitted ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1997 the Hashimoto coalition government, blaming MoF for Japan's troubles, submitted a bill to the Diet to revise the Ministry of Finance Establishment Law and the Bank of Japan Law. ●●●

1997 to April 1998 BoJ reorganizes its credit control departments ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1997 the BoJ split its Credit and Market Management Department, and in a further reorganization in April 1998 the tasks of the former Banking Department were dispersed across several new departments, obscuring the center of credit control policy. ●●

June 1997 to April 1998 Revised Bank of Japan Law passed ai_extracted 1 cit. In June 1997 a revised Bank of Japan Law was passed, effective April 1998, giving the central bank independence from the Ministry of Finance after half a century of subordination. ●●●●

1997 to 1998 Asian currency crisis erupts ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1997 the currencies of key Southeast Asian countries collapsed by 60 to 80 percent against the dollar, and Thailand, Korea, and Indonesia, facing possible national default, sought IMF emergency funding; their economies deteriorated throughout 1998. ●●●●

May 1997 Thai baht crisis breaks in Bangkok ai_extracted 1 cit. The baht crisis broke in Bangkok in May 1997, prompting Thailand's leaders to seek bridge financing rather than IMF intervention. ●●●

16 July 1997 Thai finance minister seeks Japanese help in Tokyo ai_extracted 1 cit. On July 16, 1997, Thai finance minister Thanong Bidaya flew to Tokyo for urgent talks with senior Japanese government and Finance Ministry figures, seeking around 20 billion dollars to bridge the crisis. ●●

c. 1997 Washington blocks Japan's Asian Monetary Fund proposal ai_extracted 1 cit. After Japan proposed an Asian crisis fund, with vice finance minister Sakakibara suggesting an Asian Monetary Fund to bypass the IMF, the United States forced Tokyo to withdraw the initiative and also barred Taiwan from lending to its neighbors. ●●●

1997 Hashimoto administration's 1997 structural reforms ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1997 the Hashimoto government tightened fiscal policy and enacted structural reforms, including legal independence for the Bank of Japan, dismantling the Ministry of Finance, and creating an independent Financial Supervisory Agency. ●●●●

1997 to 1998 Post-reform contraction of 1997-98 ai_extracted 1 cit. After 4 percent growth in 1996, the 1997 reforms were immediately followed by the largest postwar contraction of nominal GDP and consumer prices. ●●●

August 1997 Fresh clashes hit the coast and Rift at the 1997 election 12 cit. Around the 1997 general election, deadly violence flared again, most sharply at Likoni on the coast where armed gangs attacked residents seen as up-country outsiders, and once more in parts of the Rift Valley. Dozens were killed and thousands displaced ahead of the vote. Investigators again pointed to political organization behind the attacks rather than spontaneous ethnic hatred. The killings and displacement are documented; the reading that they were engineered for electoral advantage rests on the official inquiries. politics / war ●●

December 1997 Kibaki becomes Leader of the Official Opposition 1 cit. In 1997 Kibaki again ran for president on the Democratic Party ticket, came second to Moi, and then became Leader of the Official Opposition. The role gave him a formal national platform against KANU during Moi's last term, including criticism of corruption and calls for constitutional overhaul. politics ●●●●

1997 Uhuru enters KANU branch politics in Gatundu 1 cit. In 1997 Uhuru Kenyatta was elected chairman of his local KANU branch in Gatundu. It was a modest formal office, but it placed him inside the old ruling-party machine while Daniel arap Moi was managing the final years of KANU power. The event begins the shift from family businessman to Moi-backed national politician. politics ●●●

1997 Lake Turkana National Parks enter the World Heritage list 5 cit. UNESCO listed Lake Turkana National Parks as World Heritage for fossil deposits, ecological importance and the lake landscape. The listing made Turkana globally visible as natural and human-origins heritage, while local people still faced marginalisation in services, water and development. environment / science ●●●

1998 Bank of Japan independence and creation of the FSA ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1998 monetary policy was placed in the hands of the newly independent Bank of Japan, and financial-sector regulation was given to the new independent Financial Services Agency, ending the Ministry of Finance's dominance. ●●●●

15 June 1998 Yen collapses to nearly 147 per dollar ai_extracted 1 cit. Amid the renewed slump of 1997-1998, the yen collapsed to nearly 147 to the dollar on June 15, 1998, about 80 percent weaker than its April 1995 peak, and was read as a sign of capital flight. ●●●

March 1998 BoJ sharply boosts credit creation ai_extracted 1 cit. In March 1998 the Bank of Japan suddenly boosted credit creation to its highest level since January 1974, which was followed by the sharp economic recovery and stock market rise of 1999 before the taps were turned off again. ●●●

April 1998 New Bank of Japan Law makes the BoJ independent ai_extracted 1 cit. The new BoJ Law took effect in April 1998, stripping the Ministry of Finance of the power to set monetary policy and making the Bank of Japan legally fully independent. ●●●●

1998 Ministry of Finance stripped of its powers ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1998 MoF lost its monopoly on budgeting, control over banking supervision to an independent financial supervisory authority, its licensing power through the Big Bang deregulation, and monetary policy to the independent BoJ. ●●●●

1998 Fukui resigns with Governor Matsushita ai_extracted 1 cit. Toshihiko Fukui, appointed deputy governor in December 1994 as long planned, had to resign together with Governor Matsushita in early 1998, after which he vied to succeed interim Governor Hayami. ●●

1998 Prosecutors raid the Ministry of Finance ai_extracted 1 cit. In early 1998, public prosecutors raided the Ministry of Finance for the first time, amid scandals, arrests of senior bureaucrats, and public demonstrations against the ministry. ●●●

June 1998 Financial Supervisory Authority opens and closes LTCB and NCB ai_extracted 1 cit. Bank supervision was transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the new independent Financial Supervisory Authority, which began business in June 1998 by closing the LTCB and NCB banks. ●●●

April 1998 Big Bang begins with foreign exchange deregulation ai_extracted 1 cit. Japan's Big Bang financial deregulation started in April 1998 with the liberalization of the foreign exchange law, symbolically ending the war economy that the foreign exchange laws of the 1930s had begun. ●●●●

31 March 1998 Bank of Japan begins rapid money creation ai_extracted 1 cit. On 31 March 1998 the Bank of Japan suddenly began creating money at the fastest rate in a quarter century, one day before the new Bank of Japan Law took effect granting it legal independence; the injections drove the yen to 147 per dollar in mid-1998 and produced a surprise recovery in 1999. ●●●

1998 Bank of Korea reflates sharply ai_extracted 1 cit. In mid-1998 the Bank of Korea increased credit creation by the largest amount in twenty-five years, and Korean growth expanded sharply in the first quarter of 1999 with double-digit industrial production gains by mid-1999. ●●

17 August 1998 Russia defaults on domestic debt ai_extracted 1 cit. On August 17, 1998, Russia defaulted on its domestic debt as the Asian crisis spread to other emerging markets, with Brazil soon teetering on the verge of collapse. ●●●●

September 1998 Mahathir imposes capital controls in Malaysia ai_extracted 1 cit. In September 1998 Malaysian leader Mohammad Mahathir imposed controls on short-term capital movements, stabilizing the exchange rate while the central bank stepped up credit creation and the government cleaned up bank balance sheets without IMF-style reforms. ●●●

September 1998 New York Fed organizes LTCM bailout ai_extracted 1 cit. At the end of September 1998, New York Fed chairman William McDonough summoned the heads of major Wall Street and European banks and organized a cartel-like bailout of the failing hedge fund LTCM, averting a full-blown default. ●●●

April 1998 Bank of Japan stops publishing sectoral loan data ai_extracted 1 cit. In April 1998, upon gaining legal independence, the Bank of Japan stopped publishing the monthly sectoral bank loan data it had compiled since 1942 as the basis of its window guidance credit allocation. ●●

September 1998 Call rate lowered to near zero ai_extracted 1 cit. In September 1998 the overnight call rate was lowered to about 0.3 percent while ten-year government bond yields dropped to 0.7 percent, sparking debate that interest rate policy had reached its limit. ●●

1998 Bank of Japan granted independence ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1998 the Bank of Japan was granted independence in its operational and policy goals from the elected government, making externally imposed policy targets hard to implement. ●●●

1998 Big Bang financial deregulation begins ai_extracted 1 cit. A sweeping financial sector deregulation program known as the Big Bang began in Japan in 1998 as part of the Hashimoto reforms. ●●●

1998 Japanese suicides peak amid recession ai_extracted 1 cit. Suicides in Japan rose to 31,755 in 1998, a rise linked by observers to the recession. ●●

1998 Hayami becomes BoJ governor after 1998 resignation scandal ai_extracted 1 cit. Masaru Hayami stepped in as Bank of Japan governor in early 1998 after deputy governor Fukui and governor Matsushita resigned over a scandal. ●●●

7 August 1998 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi 6 cit. Al-Qaeda detonated a truck bomb outside the United States embassy in Nairobi, killing about 213 people and wounding thousands. The attack brought Osama bin Laden to global prominence and reshaped US counterterrorism policy. politics / war ●●●●

1998 Al Qaeda Bombs U.S. Embassies in East Africa ai_extracted 2 cit. On August 7, 1998, Al Qaeda operatives under Osama bin Laden's direction bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing over 200 people. ●●

1998 The Akiwumi Commission investigates the clashes 1 cit. President Moi appointed a judicial commission under Justice Akilano Akiwumi to inquire into the tribal clashes of the 1990s. Its report named politicians, administrators, and security officers who should be investigated for their roles and documented how the violence was organized rather than random. Almost none of those named were prosecuted, and the report's call for accountability was largely ignored. The commission and its findings are documented public record. politics / society ●

1998 U.S. launches cruise missile strikes against bin Laden ai_extracted 1 cit. On August 20, 1998, in retaliation for the embassy bombings, the U.S. fired seventy-five Tomahawk cruise missiles at bin Laden's Zawhar Kili camps in Afghanistan and thirteen more at the al Shifa plant in Sudan. At least twenty-one jihadists died, but bin Laden was not among them. ●●●

c. 1998 Killing the Vote documents election violence as a state tool 2 cit. Kenya Human Rights Commission's Killing the Vote did not treat the 1991-98 clashes as random tribal rage. It called them state-sponsored violence and a handy election tool: government surrogate agents killed, displaced and terrorized opposition communities in the Rift Valley, Western Kenya and Coast so the state could reassert dominance without admitting direct responsibility. politics / society / war ●●●●●

February 1999 Zero interest rate policy introduced ai_extracted 1 cit. In February 1999 the Bank of Japan guided the overnight call rate down to 0.1 percent, a stance dubbed the zero interest rate policy, after cutting it to a record low 0.33 percent in October 1998. ●●●

1999 to 2001 Short-lived recovery of 1999 and relapse ai_extracted 1 cit. The economy staged a sharp recovery in 1999 with the Tokyo stock market rising more than 50 percent, but the market peaked in the first quarter of 2000 and both market and economy slumped again in mid-2000 and 2001. ●●

1999 BoJ credit withdrawal strengthens the yen despite record interventions ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1999 the Bank of Japan withdrew credit from the economy at a record pace, strengthening the yen to close to 100 per dollar by year-end and oversterilizing new record foreign exchange interventions ordered by MoF. ●●●

1999 Bank of Japan withdraws credit in 1999 ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan sharply reduced its credit creation in 1999, actively withdrawing credit for most of the year; the yen returned toward 100 per dollar and the 1999 recovery stalled in 2000. ●●●

February 1999 Public money injected into Japanese banks ai_extracted 1 cit. In February 1999 Japanese banks received around 10 trillion yen in public and third-party money, part of the resources that allowed the bubble-era primary bad debts to be largely written off. ●●●

May 1999 to June 1999 Asian leaders call for currency union ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 1999 the head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority argued that Asia should move toward currency union, a call endorsed in June 1999 by the president of the Philippines. ●●

1 January 1999 European Central Bank begins operations ai_extracted 1 cit. The European Central Bank, described by the Maastricht Treaty as independent of any government or elected assembly, started operations as scheduled on January 1, 1999. ●●●●

1999 Tax money injected into Japanese banks ai_extracted 1 cit. Public tax money was injected into Japanese banks in early 1999, and the Koizumi government proposed further injections in late 2002. ●●●

23 July 1999 Omnibus Act abolishes cartel exemptions ai_extracted 1 cit. With the promulgation on July 23, 1999 of the Omnibus Act to Repeal and Reform Cartels and other exempted systems, the number of legal cartels in Japan basically reached zero. ●●●

February 1999 Zero interest rate policy adopted ai_extracted 1 cit. In February 1999 the Bank of Japan let the overnight call rate fall to 0.1 percent, a stance called the zero interest rate policy, after cutting it to 0.33 percent in October 1998. ●●●

January 1999 The Karura Forest protests against land grabbing 1 cit. When parts of Karura Forest were handed to politically connected developers, Maathai and the Green Belt Movement marched in to plant trees and block the grab. In January 1999 hired guards and police attacked the protesters, and Maathai was beaten and left bloodied. Student protests and public anger followed, and the government eventually halted the allocations. environment / politics / society ●●●

c. 1999 Peatrik reads Mbwaa as a charter of initiation contested 1 cit. Anne-Marie Peatrik argues the Mbwaa story is not a record of migration but a work of political philosophy that encodes the logic of initiation and generational succession. She reads the impossible tasks as a world turned backward toward primordial indistinction, Aita's lengthwise cutting as a figure of circumcision that establishes patrilineal dominance, and the parting of the waters as the release of suspended time so that ages and colours can separate again. On this reading the myth restates the central Meru problem: each generation must reopen the passage and rebuild the social order. culture / religion / society ●●●

1999 The El Molo language falls silent 5 cit. Linguists date the death of the El Molo language to about 1999, when its last fluent speaker, Kaayo, died, leaving only a few people who remember fragments. The tongue is now classed as dormant or extinct, replaced by Samburu. Efforts to record surviving words aim to keep some of it alive. culture / science / society ●●●

1999 Moi appoints Uhuru to the Kenya Tourism Board 2 cit. In 1999 President Daniel arap Moi appointed Uhuru Kenyatta to chair the Kenya Tourism Board. The office introduced him to national-level power brokers and made the former presidents son a visible public manager before he had won an elective seat. It was part of Moi grooming a succession figure who could carry KANU beyond Moi. economy / politics ●●●

2000 Hayami tightens monetary policy as the economy recovers ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 2000 Governor Hayami argued that a recovery might weaken pressure for structural reform, which the author cites as his justification for tightening monetary policy again in 2000. ●●●

2000 USS Cole attacked by al Qaeda suicide bombers in Aden, Yemen ai_extracted 2 cit. On October 12, 2000, a small boat packed with explosives attacked the USS Cole, an American guided-missile destroyer docked in Aden, Yemen. The explosion killed 17 American sailors and wounded 30 more. ●●

January 2001 Abolition of the Okurasho name ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 2001 Japan's Ministry of Finance lost its historic name Okurasho as part of a government reorganization, ending a long institutional history. ●●●

May 2001 Fukui's failed bid for the BoJ governorship ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 2001 Toshihiko Fukui, then head of the Fujitsu Research Institute, staged an attempt to take over from Governor Hayami as Bank of Japan governor, but Hayami refused to resign. ●●

June 2001 BoJ shifts to expanding the quantity of credit ai_extracted 1 cit. In June 2001 the Bank of Japan changed monetary policy again and sharply increased the quantity of its credit creation, which contributed positively to the economy in 2002 after the slump of 2001. ●●●

January 2001 The Okurasho loses its historic name ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 2001 the Ministry of Finance lost its grand old name, the Okurasho, as part of administrative reform. ●●

19 March 2001 Bank of Japan adopts quantitative easing ai_extracted 1 cit. On March 19, 2001 the Bank of Japan performed a sudden policy U-turn and officially adopted quantitative easing, a policy it had claimed for a decade was impossible to implement. ●●●●

January 2001 Abolition of the Ministry of Finance (Okurasho) ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 2001 the Okurasho was abolished, ending over half a century of the ministry's dominance and leaving only a rump institution. ●●●●

2001 Japan adopts market value accounting ai_extracted 1 cit. Fiscal year 2001 was the first in which Japanese company books were calculated by U.S.-style market value accounting instead of book value, sharply accelerating the dissolution of cross shareholdings and the shift to shareholder capitalism. ●●●

April 2001 Koizumi becomes prime minister ai_extracted 1 cit. Junichiro Koizumi became Japan's prime minister in April 2001, giving prominence to reform plans such as privatizing publicly owned companies, most notably the post office. ●●●

May 2001 Bank of Japan reflates under Koizumi ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 2001 the Bank of Japan's purchases of commercial paper rose over 500 percent year on year and bond purchases increased rapidly, pushing its liquidity injections back toward the levels of March 1998. ●●

March 2001 Bank of Japan announces quantitative easing ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan officially announced quantitative easing in March 2001, and in May 2001 significantly boosted its credit creation in a policy rivaling its record 1998 reflation. ●●●

2001 Enron bankruptcy ai_extracted 1 cit. The 2001 bankruptcy of Enron, followed by other accounting and fraud scandals, blurred the distinction between Asian-style and U.S.-style cronyism. ●●●

2001 German economy slows down ai_extracted 1 cit. When the German economy visibly slowed in 2001, politicians including finance minister Hans Eichel wanted stimulatory policies but found monetary policy in the hands of the independent ECB and fiscal policy constrained by the stability and growth pact. ●●

2001 Japan's national debt reaches record high ai_extracted 1 cit. New government borrowing of over 300 trillion yen during the 1990s pushed total outstanding debt to 522.1 trillion yen by end-2000, and with 2001 borrowing the debt reached a record 582.46 trillion yen, about 120 percent of GDP. ●●

19 March 2001 Bank of Japan announces reserve targeting ('quantitative easing') ai_extracted 1 cit. On March 19, 2001 the Bank of Japan announced it would switch from targeting the overnight call rate to targeting the quantity of banks' reserve deposits, a policy commonly called quantitative easing; its actual credit creation nevertheless fell in the following months. ●●●

11 September 2001 September 11 attacks 1 cit. Al-Qaeda hijackers fly airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. The attacks reshape global security, trigger the war in Afghanistan, and open two decades of conflict in the Middle East. politics / war ●●●●●

11 December 2001 China joins the WTO 1 cit. China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization after fifteen years of negotiation. Its full entry into world trade accelerates globalization, remakes supply chains, and shifts economic power toward Asia. economy ●●●●

2001 September 11 attacks rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. The attacks of September 11 were the catastrophic failure Tenet had predicted three years earlier. It was the Pearl Harbor the CIA had been created to prevent. ●●

2001 Nineteen hijackers assemble in the United States for 9/11 ai_extracted 1 cit. By mid-July 2001 all nineteen hijackers had entered the United States. Fifteen were Saudis, two Emiratis, one Egyptian, and one Lebanese; the trained pilots came from the Hamburg cell, and the "muscle" recruits arrived between April and June 2001 to await the signal, funded by al-Qaeda transfers from the Gulf. ●●●

2001 Al-Qaeda suicide bombers assassinate Ahmed Shah Massoud ai_extracted 1 cit. On September 9, 2001, two Arabs posing as television journalists detonated a bomb hidden in their camera while interviewing anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud in northern Afghanistan. The killing, two days before the 9/11 attacks, removed the Taliban's most formidable opponent. ●●●

October 2001 Moi nominates Uhuru to Parliament and Cabinet 2 cit. In October 2001 Moi nominated Uhuru to Parliament and soon appointed him Minister for Local Government. The move bypassed the electoral route and made clear that Moi was elevating Kenyatta from party asset to succession prospect. Uhuru now had the name, cabinet rank, and state sponsorship needed for the coming KANU succession fight. politics ●●●●

2001 The Mara Triangle is delegated to Mara Conservancy management 2 cit. The western Mara Triangle remained part of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, but day-to-day management was delegated to the Mara Conservancy through agreement with the local authority. This did not privatize the reserve title. It did create a public-private management model in which security, roads, tourism control and revenue collection could be run by a contracted conservation body. economy / environment / politics ●●●

December 2002 Koizumi pledges an anti-deflation BoJ governor ai_extracted 1 cit. In late December 2002 Prime Minister Koizumi stated that he would appoint as Bank of Japan governor only someone aggressive in fighting deflation. ●●