At the launch party for the Spectator’s business magazine, a banker introduced himself to me. He’d been wanting to meet me for ages, he said.

Lower global growth rates and rising energy and commodity costs are taking their toll on the Japan, which the IMF forecasts will grow in 2008 at its slowest rate in five years.

However, the Financial Times reports that the country’s export links to emerging markets are likely to shield it from the worst effects of the global recession:

Exports, which have been a big driver of growth in Japan’s economic recovery, have been surprisingly resilient in the face of a slowdown in the US

A stalling U.S. economy has typically been a cause for a concern among Asian exporters, which have traditionally been over-reliant on the American consumer for business.

By most technological measures, the U.S. is still way out in front. But in some key areas, like broadband technology and high-speed Internet access, much of the world has left America behind.

Perhaps part of the humor is that this comes at the same time as the price of gasoline went up 3 cents to another record high of an average of $3.70 a gallon. This is up 22% from this time last year! 22 percent! 22! Hahahaha!

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yauo Fukuda met recently and signed some modest cooperation agreements.

On one of my first mornings at our home here, my family and I headed for the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine. Built in the 8th century by the powerful Hata family, the shrine is best known for the four consecutive kilometers of orange Torii gates covering the mountain on which it was built.

The feds have been hard at work pushing out $110 billion of ‘rebates,’ designed to help Americans do what they already do best – spend money that they never earned.

It’s hard to believe that summer’s heat (and hurricane season) is almost here. As the calendar turns to another month it’s often quite interesting to take a look back at the past month to see which trends may be in for a switch. One phrase comes to mind that perfectly sums up April’s market action: A reversal of fortune!

Now the days are not only longer but finally starting to warm, what happened in the financial world this week? Well, on Monday Mervyn King stepped up to the plate and offered a deal for UK banks. They could swap assets of unknown worth mortgage-backed securities for those of known worth government bonds .