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Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

nytimes.com

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Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#181

Post by hkailahi »

chimeracoder wrote: post #147
marvin wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we agree on what "growth" means in this instance? Is is possible to have increased leisure/increased standard of living/increased health/decreasing cost of living over time, without having an incerase in GDP and an average positive return on capital? Or do we give up the expectancy of a better life for everyone if we give up economic growth as we know it?

> Do we agree on what "growth" means in this instance? There's a disconnect between how economists use certain terms as well-defined technical jargon and how non-economists adopt them colloquially.[0] This leads to a lot of confusion when people try to discuss economics without understanding the precise meanings of the terms at play. For the rest of this comment, I'm going to use the economic meaning of these terms,…

Fantastic analogy -will definitely be stealing that from you!

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#182

Post by guard-of-terra »

_nedR wrote: post #168
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the parent specifically mentioned highly skilled young workers who would be attracted by the modern lifestyle in Tokyo.

I dont think high skilled young workers, will be looking forward to taking care of the large number of old people, when Japan hits its population cliff. That probably will be a big sector demanding immigration.

Old people could probably take care of even older people, will easily create lots of jobs.

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#183

Post by hackuser »

laotzu wrote: post #97
HSO wrote: post #86

Those who think Japan is unique in its condition and/or that the answer to its problems is more of the same old "advice" as proffered by standard issue economists and business types might profit from Robert Gordon's recently published "American Growth". (paper version: http://www.nber.org/papers/w18315.pdf ) At least, it can offer a different, longer-term perspective on the issues. It's not impossible that we will lo…

Growth for the sake of growth is cancer

I agree, but we still cannot afford may things we need, such as providing adequate health care to all people.

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#184

Post by SolaceQuantum »

bigmanwalter wrote: post #176
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Japan have the same issues with student loans and such that USA might have? Otherwise, thank you for the explanation and I do apologize for my ignorance. (Also, I'm still confused about the feminism thing)

I think he meant the whole thing where women can now decide if the want to keep the baby or not.

Women have always been able to decide, with terrible consequences. Putting up your baby for adoption or abandoning it at an orphanage is pretty old?

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#185

Post by danans »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #180
danans wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to downvote, you should provide an explanation.

You're compounding multiple weak statements together, making responding to them all infeasible, people downvote and move on.

Thank you.

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#186

Post by zhemao »

vetinari wrote: post #145
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Japan have the same issues with student loans and such that USA might have? Otherwise, thank you for the explanation and I do apologize for my ignorance. (Also, I'm still confused about the feminism thing)

With the feminism thing, it was some other guy, won't help you much with that, sorry. I'm ignorant about that too.

Might be referring to the fact that many Japanese women choose not to marry and have kids because it is essentially career suicide. There's a very strong cultural bias against working mothers in Japan.

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#187

Post by madhermit »

djsumdog wrote: post #172
laotzu wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growth for the sake of growth is cancer

Exactly, you cannot have infinite growth. Consumerism and planned obsolescence depend on ever expanding growth. Why can't we just have...enough? Why don't we create things that last decades instead of years? We can scale down, consume less, pollute less. We could have fewer factories that produce higher quality products. We could pay people more. We could have a minimum income so we'd get more art and entertainment i…

I concur with your description of the symptoms and your desired outcome. However, the current state of affairs has less to do with capitalism in general and more to do with the western world's addiction to short term results resulting from subscribing to Keynesian economic theory.

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#188

Post by ddeck »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #169
ddeck wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the average Japanese saver would see it that way. I agree, we're not talking about an external default, but monetization is still likely to severely impact the wealth of the middle class.

Compound interest isn't a physical system law though, its a human law. Just because it has worked previously because you could continue to extract productivity from labor does not mean that rule will continue. What if capital loses its value and no longer earns interest? You can't say its not happening, when central banks are charging interest on capital.

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but to clarify, I was discussing the potential impact of sustained deficit monetization on Japan's middle class savers via its effects on the monetary base and inflation.

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#189

Post by toomuchtodo »

ddeck wrote: post #188
toomuchtodo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound interest isn't a physical system law though, its a human law. Just because it has worked previously because you could continue to extract productivity from labor does not mean that rule will continue. What if capital loses its value and no longer earns interest? You can't say its not happening, when central banks are charging interest on capital.

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but to clarify, I was discussing the potential impact of sustained deficit monetization on Japan's middle class savers via its effects on the monetary base and inflation.

My understanding of your comment was you pointing out the average Japanese saver would be upset about their savings rate being non-existent due to the debt owed to them being internal (and therefore, dependent on central bank monetary policy). My comment insinuated that Japanese savers may have no other options other than an insignificant savings rate due to internal monetary policy and a bleak worldwide investing landscape.

I should've expounded! My apologies!

Re: Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate

#190

Post by AnimalMuppet »

ddeck wrote: post #160
jahnu wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They borrowed it mostly from themselves though which makes it more complicated and much less of a problem than it might at first appear.

I doubt the average Japanese saver would see it that way. I agree, we're not talking about an external default, but monetization is still likely to severely impact the wealth of the middle class.

Monetization means inflation, right? That doesn't seem to be happening in Japan. In fact, it's almost the opposite of negative interest rates.
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