Posted on 09/21/2008 9:38:03 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
During the crisis, Japan feels like an island of calm
By Martin Fackler
Sunday, September 21, 2008
TOKYO: Wall Street may be suffering the worst financial storm since the Great Depression, but Japan has felt like an island of Zen-like calm.
The world's second-largest economy after the United States has often seemed to be marching to its own drummer, sometimes to disastrous effect. But rarely has the disconnect been as stark as during the current crisis.
While European and American financial titans have teetered and collapsed, giant Japanese banking groups have stood relatively unscathed. The growing global credit crisis, which threatens companies and consumers elsewhere, has yet to appear here, where the problem for years has been that the nation's banks have too much cash, not too little.
And while the U.S. Federal Reserve seems to be shoring up the entire American financial sector, the last time the Japanese central bank intervened in markets, it did so in dollars instead of yen - to help international markets.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Ping!
whatta joke!
they don’t remember japan’s inflated real estate market?
and the 10 years afterwrds of no growth?
Zen my backside
When we last spent realtime in Tokyo (2000, granted a while back) the massive Govt funded public works projects were that was keeping the economy afloat...
Now that they have gotten past the 80s credit binge - and it took them a couple of decades, they seem to have rationalized thier system.
We (the US) should be this smart....
THanks for the link!
There was a recent story that more than 30 Trillion Yen worth of cash is outside the banking system. It’s in safes, in futons, maybe buried under a certain flower-pot in the yard — nobody really knows.
That’s in addition to the Trillions in savings accounts that many Japanese people have. (Not individually, of course. Or, at least not me.)
A poster above mentioned the bubble years and the economic downturn caused by the fall in real estate prices. Well? I lived here through that and through everything that has happened since and it’s really difficult walking through any shopping district to see much in the way of disaster.
Some increase in homeless. Very well-mannered, well-kept, clean and polite homeless, but yes homeless nonetheless.
What the bubble years did, and what the stupid LDP “pump-priming” did was teach the average Japanese that when it comes to money, they are much better off living within their means than they are racking up debt. Which is why the average Japanese really doesn’t have that much in the way of personal debt and is quite happy without it.
I think that most Japanese are in the “once bitten, twice shy” category. They don’t want that crap to happen again - but they also realize that in an interconnected economy like today’s there is no absolute security for anyone.
LOL! Sounds like your kind of book.
Japan survived without the downside effects that everyone predicted at the time.
They survived. And if you ignore the decade plus of stagnant growth and the fact that their government debt is now approaching 200% of GDP, no downside. LOL!
The guy wanted an explanation about how Japan was working its mess out. I told him where he could go look for it. That is all.
Yeah, they boosted their government debt to almost double GDP. That would be about $14 trillion for us. Is that what you recommend? Because if that's the case, a $700 billion "bailout" isn't large enough.
Tell that to Toddster. He thinks the country Japan is a disaster. Don’t tell him otherwise. Private greed is good. More is better. The mostest greed is the best. He is burning insense at the alter of Goldman Sachs thanking the spirits of the mortgage default swap that they were so willing to lend us the true One, the One behind the One, in our hour desperate hour of needing $1T in bailouts.
Is Japan a disaster? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like it to me. Almost everyone is working, bills are getting paid, people are buying stuff. Prices are definitely higher than they were but it’s not something that was unexpected or even frightening.
One thing that is happening, is that people are buying more domestic than before, even when the imports are LOTS cheaper. American beef and pork just sits on the supermarket shelves while the Japanese brands move briskly. They’ve figured out that if they put money in “his” pocket that he will have money to put in “my” pocket.
It’s not rocket science. If I were to describe the mood in Tokyo these days it would be “Yeah, times are going to get tougher, but we can deal with it.”
I do?
I just mentioned that their "no downside" includes government debt nearly triple that of the US.
No one said "no downside." The prediction at the time dire, that Japan was going to turn into a 3rd world country, minor world actor, no economic power or influence etc. etc. It hasn't exactly worked out that way.
What it suggests is that we could survive this bump too, but we seem to be following the Japanese in the socialization of finance (i.e. a much stronger government hand in directing the industry).
Like the recent predictions about us.
What it suggests is that we could survive this bump too, but we seem to be following the Japanese in the socialization of finance
Hopefully we won't follow them to government debt of twice GDP.
Toddster, are you for or against the gov’t bailouts?
I don’t like government bailouts. I also don’t like depressions.
When guys like Travis were saying over the last few years our finacial house was going to crumple and we could head into another depression, you disagreed...and if I recall made disparaging comments towards him and people who agreed with him over even the thought of this country heading into a depreession.
It's true, predicting a depression when we had GDP growth of 3% is something I disagreed with.
...and if I recall made disparaging comments towards him and people who agreed with him over even the thought of this country heading into a depreession.
It's true, I disparaged Travis and people who agreed with him when they made ill-informed (and stupid) comments.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.