Briefing: 1990s

Japan's own cycle catches up with them - labor is expensive, real estate fiascos ruin many banks, government corruption is publicized.  A recession grips the nation, and production slows, as it has in the U.S.  However, the growth of the Information Technology industry staves off domestic economic woes.

The cold war ends, but the US keeps investing large sums of money in the military that could otherwise go to social programs and other public sector supports.  General Motors creates a financial division (GMAC) in 1998, financing the sale of its own vehicles.

Global competition for automobile sales gets keener and keener - advantages don't last long as technology is shared and resources are quicky realigned to meet threats. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments set strict standards to lower emissions and require gas pumps to have attachments to capture vapors, A schedule for increasingly strict emission standards for new cars is set to be phased in over 10 years.