"Henderson, that's my game. I pitch in to help the little fish fend off the big ones."
"No offense, friend, but you probably couldn't even get into the ball park where Noda and his boys are playing. We're talking the very big leagues here."
"Now hold on a second. Noda's not interested in companies. He's just shooting a little craps. From what I've seen so far, the guy seems to be completely on the up-and-up. In fact, looked at from the long view, you might even say he's putting money into this country, never mind it's just the Wall Street casino."
"Sure he is. It's like he first kicks the shit out of you, then hands you a Coke so's you'll feel refreshed."
"What in hell are you talking about?"
"Well, let's back up a notch. Since I don't want to bad-mouth your new client, why don't you let me give you what I'll call a purely hypothetical case." He sipped at his Scotch. "Let's suppose you were a Japanese guy, like Matsuo Noda for instance, and you wanted to take over some strategic American industry and ship it to Japan. How'd you go about it?"
"Well . . ."
"Have a drink, counselor." He plunged forward. "And let me tell you a little fairy tale. About how Matsuo Noda ate the American semiconductor industry."
"Noda?"
"It was MITI actually. But Noda was running the Ministry when they did it, and he was the guy who set up the play."