21.   Japan has some tremendous underlying economic strengths, ranging from well-trained and committed workers to huge private savings.

22.   Most citizens retain their jobs and have substantial private savings.

23.   On the other end, welfare transfer spending reduces the need for private savings and risk-taking, the rating company said.

24.   Private savings in aggregate are, of course, the sum of individual savings.

25.   Private savings will suffer because the elderly put little aside, relying on pensions to support their retirement.

26.   Retirement income would forever after be a combination of Social Security, corporate and government pensions, and private savings.

27.   Reforms must include efforts to increase private savings, Greenspan said, although he poured cold water on proposals to invest Social Security revenues in U.S. financial markets.

28.   Selling either reduces the private savings available for private investment in, say, factories or housing.

29.   That recommendation would replace part of Social Security with compulsory private savings that would be invested in stocks and bonds.

30.   That peace dividend helped transform budget deficits into surpluses, permitting more resources to flow into private investment even as private savings dwindled.