Japan’s make-or-break economic policies have been named lovingly after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe – lovingly, because if they fail, he gets to carry an albatross called Abenomics around his neck for the rest of his life. And one of the “three arrows” of Abenomics is already headed that way: goosing the economy through a frontal attack in the Currency War.
Japan
Bank Of Japan Machinations Crash Into Reality
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Akie Abe, Shinzo Abe’s Antinuclear Wife
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Japanese Hodgepodge Of Old Ideas And New Contradictions, Stocks Dive In Sympathy
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Japanese Hodgepodge Of Old Ideas And New Contradictions, Stocks Dive In Sympathy
The leaders of Japan Inc. listened politely as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid out his master plan, the cornerstone of Abenomics that would fix everything and offer big handouts to Japan Inc. As his words seeped out, the Nikkei dove 5% in a couple of hours. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his hodgepodge of old ideas and new contradictions.
Iron-Fisted Bank Of Japan Is Losing Its Grip
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Stability in the Japanese government bond market is “extremely desirable,” said Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda in a sign of just how frazzled he was after the turmoil and craziness that his over-the-edge experimental monetary policy has unleashed. But as stability eludes him, he might resort to ever more desperate measures to just hang on.
The Quiet Triumph Of Oil And Gas In Obama’s Policies
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Japan’s Vacant Houses: Visions of Detroit
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Japan’s Vacant Houses: Visions of Detroit
Unlike Detroit, which will run out of cash next month, Japan prints its own money, so bankruptcy in the Detroit sense is not in the cards. But they do have two things in common: depopulation and a ballooning stock of abandoned houses. For Japan, it’s an issue that even the most prodigious money-printing binge cannot resolve.
Abenomics Tries To Make Sure Japan Is Going Down Swinging
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Anecdotal evidence has been piling up. Lamborghini sales hit the highest level in 14 years. Ferrari sales jumped 40%. Luxury retailers forecast fat profits. They ascribed it to Abenomics. “The sudden improvement in the stock market led to a big rise in sales at our department stores for luxury brands,” one of them said. But there is a price to pay.
Potential Cost Of A Nuclear Accident? So High It’s A Secret!
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Catastrophic nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl or Fukushima, are very rare, we’re told incessantly. But when they occur, they’re costly. So costly that the French government, when it came up with estimates, kept them secret. But the report was leaked: an accident at a single reactor in a thinly populated part of France could cost over three times France’s GDP.
What the Japanese Trade Deficit Says About the Fraying Fabric In China And Europe
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on What the Japanese Trade Deficit Says About the Fraying Fabric In China And Europe
European talking heads are reassuring us on an hourly basis, lest we forget, that the worst of the debt crisis is over. The Japanese trade deficit, a measure of reality, not words, tells a different story about the crisis in Europe. And about troubles coming to a boil in China. But neither can be cured by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to decapitate the yen.