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Category Archive: Japan
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The Real Experiment That Is Being Carried Out In Japan
The future never resembles the past – as we well know. But, generally speaking, our imagination and our knowledge are too weak to tell us what particular changes to expect. We do not know what the future holds. Nevertheless, as living and moving beings, we are forced to act. – John Maynard Keynes Discussions of [...]
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The A-b-e Of Economics
And the world said “Let Shinzo Abe be”, and all was light. “The point is not that I have an uncanny ability to be right; it’s that the other guys have an intense desire to be wrong. And they’ve achieved their goal.” Paul Krugman A new craze is sweeping the planet. The image I have [...]
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Hungary’s Matolcsy Joins Japan’s Abe In Practicing The Ancient Art Of Verbal Intervention
It’s amazing what you can achieve these days just by promising to do something. It’s also fascinating to watch just what a storm you can stir up. Last July Mario Draghi surprised markets when he vowed to do anything – whatever it would take – to save the Euro. He didn’t go into details, he [...]
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Japan’s Looming Singularity
by Claus Vistesen and Edward Hugh According to Wikipedia, in complex analysis an essential singularity of a function is a “severe” singularity near which the function exhibits extreme behavior. The category essential singularity is a “left-over” or default group of singularities that are especially unmanageable: by definition they fit into neither of the other two [...]
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Taking A Man At His Word
Legendary hedge fund supremo Ray Dalio is in ebullient mood. Following a series of moves by Mario Draghi to underpin European government financing Dalio told Bloomberg that, in his opinion, the euro will now “likely” stay together because existing growth-constraining austerity measures will henceforth be balanced by money printing over at the European Central Bank. [...]
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Reading the Writing on the Japanese Wall
The recent decision by Fitch Ratings to downgrade the Japanese sovereign by one notch, from AA minus to A plus, has all the outward appearance of being a predictable non-event. As the Reuters article reporting the decision puts it, Credit downgrades usually do not have a lasting impact on markets in Japanbecause its government bonds are [...]
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Global Economy Heading Downhill?
According to the JP Morgan Global Composite PMI report, “Growth of global economic activity eased sharply to a five month low in April.” The authors of the report found that on aggregate across the countries surveyed – 30 across the globe – both new order inflows and job creation fell back, leading them to the conclusion that “the world economy [...]
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Global Manufacturing Steadies as She Goes, or Does She?
The year got off on a much better foot than might have been expected, at least as far as global manufacturing is concerned. As the JP Morgan report puts it: “The global manufacturing sector continued to record below trend growth at the start of 2012. At 51.2 in January, the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI™ rose [...]
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Is Finland Really a Closet Member of the Eurozone Periphery?
At a time when many eyes look hopefully towards the ECB for the kind of action which may prove to be the salvation of the much beleaguered Eurozone other, more critical, ones are casting themselves back over the recent track record of the institution itself, and asking what, if any, responsibility the Frankfurt-based bankers have for having [...]
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Is Japan in Danger of a Deflation Relapse?
“Japan’s V-shaped recovery has now become a statistical fact rather than our forecast. According to retail sales statistics, the level of retail sales in June has already exceeded the level prior to the disaster. Sales of general merchandise and apparel have recovered and replacement demand for vehicles and reconstruction demand for household equipment have lifted [...]
