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Why Japan Is Doomed

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Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#61

Post by thingie »

potatolicious wrote: post #27
masklinn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I was very surprised by their lack of work ethic/prospect from my first time in Japan Why would you be surprised by their "lack of work ethics"? They got fucked hard, so it's understandable that they aren't going to care much for "the man" anymore: they were told their contract was to work like mad in their studies, get to a good university and end up landing a good job in a multinational where they'd work thei…

Oh bullshit - I'm surprised you got as many upvotes given that this is supposed to be the entrepreneurial bunch (and our previous mega-thread involving Scott the useless college grad). Boo hoo, so the economic sucks and you were lied to your whole life about how your employment situation was going to work. So? This does not excuse laziness and a crappy work ethic. Perhaps their chronic unemployment stems from the fac…

> This does not excuse laziness and a crappy work ethic.

If it won't make any difference, then… why?

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#62

Post by jbooth »

anamax wrote: post #59
jbooth wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Krugman says that we're in a depression and that the one economic climate where you should run a temporary deficit is in severe recession or depression. Now, you can say that after 8 years of castigating Bush for deficits, he's all of a sudden ok with them under Obama. And you'd be right. But it's also true that Bush took inherited a surplus and doubled the national debt in a "boom" economy, while Obama inherited an…

> But it's also true that Bush took inherited a surplus and doubled the national debt in a "boom" economy The deficit under the last Repub congress was $100B/year and the trend was downwards. That changed when the Dems took congress for Bush's last two years. The current deficit is $100B/month. Note that Congress didn't pass a budget in 2008 - they held back until after Obama became president.

Ok, so based on fiscal-year technicalities and on the GIANT ECONOMIC DISASTER that Bush and supply-side economics presided over, Obama's increased the deficit a lot. True.

He still didn't inherit a surplus and double the national debt.

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#63

Post by caf »

stretchwithme wrote: post #33

We're borrowing 43% of our budget? Talk about unsustainable. I would seriously make plans for when the US is forced to stop this destructive pattern. Its going to be ugly.

The US is in a somewhat unique position - as the de facto reserve currency, it can inflate its debts away.

Like Monopoly's "Get Out Of Jail Free" it's a card you can only play once, though.

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#65

Post by cema »

api wrote: post #36
startuprules wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Japan, it's all about 'tradition'. So society/entranched interests resist changes heavily. For example, the entrepreneur who started 1000-yen haircut chain in Japan (severely undercutting the barbershops) used to get death threats on his life, and had to fight tooth and nail to get spaces in shopping centers. You should see the blank stare I get, when they ask me about how to be successful in life (I'm a bit olde…

"Tradition is the enemy of progress."

Unless it's the tradition of entrepreneurship and hard work.

One could say it's a meta tradition; ok.

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#66

Post by artsrc »

d2viant wrote: post #23

The part I don't understand is why Japanese citizens would accept such low returns on their investment for so many years, when so many investments outside of Japanese government debt would give them higher yields. Is it a cultural thing? Is it just pure altruism? Do they want to support their government that much that they're willing to ignore better investments for their savings?

Seems like a version of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_home_bias_puzzle

I don't know why US savers don't invest in Australian dollar accounts either. They pay about 6 times as much as US term deposits.

http://www.infochoice.com.au/banking/savings-account/term-de...

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#67

Post by roc »

jbooth wrote: post #57
roc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "he's all of a sudden ok with them under Obama. And you'd be right." No, you wouldn't. For eight years he castigated Bush for not paying down the debt. Krugman's advice is: borrow your way out of the bad days, pay it back on the good ones. There's plenty of policy there to disagree about. There's no reason or benefit to misrepresenting people's positions.

Finish reading :) I said exactly that.

My mistake. I swear I read that twice; apparently I should have gone for a third pass.

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#68

Post by codexon »

artsrc wrote: post #66
d2viant wrote: post #23

The part I don't understand is why Japanese citizens would accept such low returns on their investment for so many years, when so many investments outside of Japanese government debt would give them higher yields. Is it a cultural thing? Is it just pure altruism? Do they want to support their government that much that they're willing to ignore better investments for their savings?

Seems like a version of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_home_bias_puzzle I don't know why US savers don't invest in Australian dollar accounts either. They pay about 6 times as much as US term deposits. http://www.infochoice.com.au/banking/savings-account/term-de...

I just checked two of those term deposits and they both require Australian residency. Can I get one of those without living in Australia?

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#69

Post by Ardit20 »

caf wrote: post #63
stretchwithme wrote: post #33

We're borrowing 43% of our budget? Talk about unsustainable. I would seriously make plans for when the US is forced to stop this destructive pattern. Its going to be ugly.

The US is in a somewhat unique position - as the de facto reserve currency, it can inflate its debts away. Like Monopoly's "Get Out Of Jail Free" it's a card you can only play once, though.

Am sure Japan can do that also since they have their own currency and can print plenty of money.

One person mentioned some numbers however, such as 2500 Yuan per hour. I am sure that figure one day was 25 Youan, but inflate and inflate, some zeros have been added.

I guess however having prices go up also, such that say bread is 1000 Yuan you do not get real inflation if you print slowly. But, I doubt anyone want to take a chance.

I would think also that it is not so easy and it is not really a get out of jail card. Money have value as long as they have power. They can print as much as they like, as it seems to be the case with Japan, but if prices go up accordingly, they would need to print more, and prices go up and print more and Germany 1930s or Zimbabwe 2007.

Paying off debt is a good policy, whether be it a country or individual. Saving is a good policy too.

Re: Why Japan Is Doomed

#70

Post by Ardit20 »

nedrichards wrote: post #43
startuprules wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anybody with personal accounts from Iceland?

Yes. And since I lived in the UK my government impounded Icelandic owned assets up to their value[1] to pay me back my money. Yay for international relations! [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businesslatestnews/318519...

Yeah. Those were strange times. The PM had the decency to threaten to use anti-terrorism laws against Iceland!
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