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MAULDIN: Japan Is On The Brink Of Disaster John Mauldin, Thoughts From The Frontline May 26, 2013, 9:08 AM I wrote several years ago that Japan is a bug in search of a windshield. And in January I wrote that 2013 is the Year of the Windshield. The recent volatility in Japanese markets is breathtaking but characteristic of what one should come to expect from a country that is on the brink of fiscal and economic disaster. I don't mean to be trite, from a global perspective; Japan is not Greece: Japan is the third-largest economy in the world. Its...

Central bankers have gone totally mad. The stunning news of toady is a new pledge by Japan to double its monetary base in two years as the Bank of Japan Unveils Aggressive Easing. The Bank of Japan will aim to double the monetary base over two years through the aggressive purchase of long-term bonds, in a dramatic shift aimed at ridding Japan of the deflation that has dogged the country for almost two decades. Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday announced his arrival as central bank governor with a “new phase of monetary easing”, a move that comes after Prime Minister Shinzo...

The Bank of Japan has launched the most daring monetary experiment of modern times, aiming to double the money base within two years to overpower deflation and catapult the economy out of slump. The blast of money is expected to reignite the yen “carry trade” and flood global markets with up to $2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) of pent-up savings, giving the entire world a shot in the arm. The BoJ’s new team under governor Haruhiko Kuroda voted 8:1 for a double dose of “quantitative and qualitative monetary easing”, vowing to inject stimulus for “as long as it takes” to break...

<p>This is it – the moment the Abenomics-watchers have been waiting for.</p> <p>Wednesday night, the Bank of Japan will conclude its first monetary policy meeting with new BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda at the helm.</p> <p>So far, Japan's great "Abenomics" experiment – which seeks to employ bold policy tools to overcome more than a decade of deflation – has been mostly talk.</p>

SOROS: 'What Japan Is Doing Is Quite Dangerous' Sam RoApril 5, 2013 Legendary investor George Soros is in Hong Kong for the INET conference. He took a few minutes to speak with CNBC's Bernie Lo. "Reports say you made a billion dollar shorting the yen," Lo said. "What are you trying to do? Break the Bank of Japan?" "I think the Bank of Japan is eager to have people do that," joked Soros. On Thursday, the BoJ's Haruhiko Kuroda announced extremely aggressive monetary policy, an effort to stimulate Japan's stagnant economy. "It is a sensation because he broke some of...

Here's What's Behind The Collapse Of The Japanese Yen — The Biggest Economic Story In The World Joe WeisenthalDec. 27, 2012, 7:26 PM Earlier we joked that lost in all of the Fiscal Cliff shuffle was the fact that the yen has been getting clobbered. SocGen's FX guru Kit Juckes jokingly responded that far from getting "lost" the yen carnage was actually the only game in town. Indeed this is really the huge story in global markets right now. In addition to being a major shift in one of the world's biggest and strongest currencies, it affects all sorts of...

The fiscal cliff has been getting most of the media attention these days. And when not fretting over U.S. political gridlock, investors have turned their attention to Europe.But the real crisis brewing—and the one that no one seems to notice—is in Japan. The land of the rising sun is a ticking time bomb, and when it finally blows up it will make all the talk of Eurozone disintegration seem petty by comparison.Japan is the most heavily-indebted nation in the world with government debts of over 220% of GDP and a gaping budget deficit of nearly 10% of GDP.To put that...

TOKYO - Japan's government could run out of money by the end of October, halting all state spending including salaries, pensions and unemployment benefits, because of a standoff in parliament that has blocked a bill to finance the deficit. The deficit financing bill, which would allow the government to sell bonds needed to fund almost half of the budget, has languished in parliament as the ruling Democratic Party tussles with opposition parties that can use their control of the upper house to reject legislation. "Without this bill, the budget will collapse," Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Friday, pleading for...