Japan is Facing a Currency and Economic Meltdown

There's an awesome article over at Zerohedge about Japan's current economic malaise. Please refer to, Japan Is Now Another Spinning Plate in The Global Economic Circus: 

For those who are in a hurry today, the bottom line is that Japan is in serious trouble right now and is a top candidate to be the next black swan. Here are the elements of difficulty that concern me the most, each one serving to reduce Japan's economic and financial stability:

• The total shutdown of all 54 nuclear plants, leading to an energy insufficiency

• Japan's trade deficit in negative territory for the first time in decades, driven largely by energy imports

• A budget deficit that is now 56% larger than revenues (!!)

• Total debt standing at a whopping 235% of GDP

• A recession shrinking Japan's economy at an annual rate of 2.3%

• Renewed efforts underway to debase the yen

Oh, and let's not forget that Greece is about to default day after tomorrow.


If you live in Japan, I hope that you have at least two weeks worth of food and water stored up (you should have that anyway - especially if you have children - as this country has lots of earthquakes). Preferable, if you have a place to put it, two months is best.


This article is coming hot on the heels of a post I wrote about being positive. Well, my friends, trust that it is much easier to be positive when you are prepared.


What should the government do? Well, twenty years of easy credit and deflationary policies haven't worked. Why don't we try what worked after the war to create the greatest economic recovery the world has ever seen? Please refer to: In 1949, Japan Started on the Road to Prosperity by Eliminating Sales Tax.


Raising taxes and continued debt spending has gotten us to where we are today. Devaluing the currency and taking on more debt won't help us. More debt will not solve a debt problem. That's basic math.


If you owed $10,000 on all your credit cards, would it help you if you got another credit card and borrowed $10,000 to pay off your old credit cards?


Why can't the government see this?


Devaluing our currency will only punish the people and the savers. We need people to save in order to invest.

Japan's Recession & More Nonsense Reporting

I am astounded that the media can actually report such nonsense as what I have just seen. The headlines read: Japan Falls Back Into Recession After Quake. Are you kidding me? Japan has been in a recession for two decades. What kind of rubbish reporting is this? 


Yahoo reports:

Japan's economy plunged back into recession in January-March, contracting sharply on the impact of the nation's biggest recorded earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear crisis, data showed Thursday. The economy shrank by a much worse-than-expected 3.7 percent year on year, marking the second consecutive quarter of contraction, which economists define as a technical recession. In the aftermath of the disasters, output saw its biggest ever fall and spending plunged while consumer and business confidence took a tumble.

Consumers have held off spending on non-essentials such as entertainment and travel.

Well, of course they did, Einstein. The mayor of Tokyo told us that we weren't to celebrate the cherry blossom season with the traditional festivities, the biggest festival in Japan, Sanjya Matsuri was cancelled, our electricity was cut in many places, and we couldn't even buy water - we still can't - in many areas.

And these Keynesian clowns think this is falling "back" into recession? They must be joking. We've been in a recession for over twenty years.