The Nikkei 225 stock index closed today at 8,296. That was a level first reached in 1983. Japan had a real estate/debt bubble in 1990. They spent decades propping up zombie banks, keeping interest rates at 0% and producing worthless stimulus plans. Their national debt is now over 200% of GDP. Their economy is a shambles. Their demographics worsen by the day. And their stock market is at 30 year lows – down 80% from the 1990 peak.
Does the Japanese story remind you of another country? Think real hard. Is their another country with a real estate/debt bubble that popped? Is there a country who has chosen to prop up insolvent banks on the backs of their citizens? Is their another country that has dropped interest rates to 0%? Is there another country that has wasted trillions on stimulus pork? Is there another country that has a demographics/entitlement crisis? Is there another country whose debt to GDP ratio has passed 100% and is rising at an astounding rate? I’ll give you a hint. Their stock market peaked at 14,000 in 2007. I wonder what level it will be in a few years from now? Ask someone from Japan.
John Coster says:
And just think, to add to the fun: If the fuel rod storage tank for Fuckedashima reactor 4 collapses, they’ll have to fund the evacuation of Tokyo. But no worries. The chances of that happening are only about 50/50.
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4th June 2012 at 10:56 am
Kill Bill says:
Their national debt is now over 200% of GDP. -admin
Were not #1?
Dayumit people, we must work less and borrow more. Drive from convemience store to convenience store buying scratch offs, gasoline and obese sized sodas. If we dont expand we will die.
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4th June 2012 at 11:46 am
Administrator says:
The Nikkei Index is not at a new low, however the Economic Times reports Tokyo Broader Markets Hit 28-year Low Amid Global Rout
TOKYO: Asian shares tumbled on Monday, pushing the broader Tokyo market to a 28-year low, as investors extended a rout of global stocks and worried about a nightmare scenario of euro-zone breakup, U.S. economic relapse and a sharp slowdown in China.
Tokyo’s broader Topix index lost 2.1 percent to 693.35, a level not seen since late 1983, as Asian markets plumbed new lows for 2012. Japan’s Nikkei average fell 2 percent after last week marking its ninth straight week of losses, the longest such losing streak run in 20 years.
“It’s not an issue of risk-on or risk-off anymore, it’s nervousness all over until a clear direction emerges on a long-term trend,” said Hisamitsu Hara, chief FX manager at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
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4th June 2012 at 11:58 am
AWD says:
Yea, don’t be to hard on the little nippers. They killed 100,000 American soldiers, and have sold 100,000,000 Toyotas and Lexus’ to stupid boomers and everyone else.
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4th June 2012 at 12:20 pm
ron says:
People who lose wars to use make out preety good.
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4th June 2012 at 12:26 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
Ron-
I think you just figured out how to fix our country! We just have to lose a war with ourselves! Then we will move and spend uncounted trillions propping up and fixing our own economy!
It shouldn’t be too hard to trick our politicians into this scheme, they believe everything you put in front of them as long as it says “terrorist” in it somewhere.
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4th June 2012 at 12:28 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
The difference between the Japanese debt and ours is, I think, that the Japanese people themselves own the majority of their debt. So they don’t have an international banker, like China, to kowtow to, they just need the rest of the world to buy their stuff as their economy is almost 100% based on exports. And they have almost NO natural resources, other than their people.
Evidently, it is rather difficult to swear in Japanese, but these is a phrase loosely translated as “i messed up”.
As it is with these cross-cultural references, there is often an unexpected gem.
That word is: Shimatta.
I think if you pronounce it SHEEEEMatta, you can get the idea.
Heh.
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4th June 2012 at 12:43 pm
Bob says:
Hope, you point out the main reason Japan is the most hopeless of all — a dwindling number of Japanese owe an increasing amout of money — to themselves! It’s the ultimate zero sum game!
No nukes, soaring costs for imported oil, natural gas and coal — hey, who turned off the lights?
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4th June 2012 at 4:49 pm
Novista says:
AWD
You can blame Bretton Woods for Toyota, et al. Why do you think the Marshall Plan and other international aid happened? It was not out of humanitarian considerations — just another form of mercantilism.
Build those foreigners up to be productive so they can (a) buy our shit and (b) absorb U.S. dollars for their exports. As HZK said: “they have almost NO natural resources, other than their people.”
I will quibble about the constant harping here on fucking China, to wit:
China 1169.9 (Mar 2012) [billions]
Japan 1083.0
Total foreign holdings – 5117.6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt#Foreign_holders_of_U.S._Treasury_securities
And domestic holdings are around $11 trillion (far more than the kindness of foreign strangers … )
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4th June 2012 at 11:33 pm
Novista says:
Oh yeah … HZK
shimatta = damn (my Berlitz Japanese Reference Dictionary)
Here’s a useful one, too: shitaku = preparation
and I always liked baka=stupid. Generally, spoken nihongo is unstressed, unless you’re a gaijin.
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4th June 2012 at 11:59 pm