LOL, WHAT? It does not, it had. That is way past. Why do you think Japanese manga are that good? Because designers and artists rather choose such lifestyle over applying their artistic skills at a corporate where they are minimally compensated (the inventor and researcher who came up with blue light LEDs got a wet handshape and a few yen for his efforts; he left in disgust for the US and never returned to Japan remaining a deeply depressed and disappointed man). Of course does Japan sport some niche industries and products but way not enough to pull the economy back on track. Japan in transition? Are you Japanese? Do you live in Japan? With all due respect if you are not then you are obviously not seeing what most (including me) see having lived in Japan and still living in the region for a long period of time. What transition are you talking about? Please elaborate? Printing some money does not transition x to y at all.
STRUCTURAL REFORMS ARE BETTER. NONE OF THIS MONEY WILL CHANGE A THING UNLESS IT IS ACCOMPANIED BY STRUCTURAL REFORMS. (if Japanese law makers do not get it till now I doubt the message with a hammer in bold will not do much good either but it remains Japan's only solution)
Guys, billions have been spent in Japan on fiscal programs. Net effect: Negative. Billions have been spent in Greece, Spain, Portugal. Net effect: Negative. In fact their economies are worse off than before. How can anyone be so shameless and offending and state that Spain and Greece go through austerity when they received billions of euros in aid after years of them lying to Europe and the rest of the world, after years of abuse, overspending, partying. Now spending programs will solve their problems? Guys, they fuck the same old goats as before, their shipping industry, a multi century pride of the country, is all but dead. Unemployment remains sky high and even if you multiply the spending programs by 100 what will change? Companies and people there become more efficient and work harder? How can someone be so ignorant and ignore the basic facts of life that when you give a drug addict money he/she will just buy more drugs. No money or support in the world will help an addict. Only a self-realization and taking a fearless moral inventory of oneself will be the starting point to the road to recovery. Goodness. Why are we even debating this?
Japan has tried various measures to get the economy going again. You are quite right about that. But they haven't done it correctly. They are now just learning how to do it right. It is not nearly so simple as just bringing interest rates down to virtually 0 and expanding the money supply. There are many other measures that have to be coordinated.,
spoken like the true sell-side equity piker. Are you selling Japanese equity? And of course you know that they are doing it right this time around. And of course you have good reason to believe so, after all Japan has shown an improved understanding and learning ability regarding the successful implementation of fiscal and monetary programs right? Piezoe, I laud your optimism and hope and expectations, unfortunately none of that is whatsoever grounded in facts, track records, nor past behavior. Your touting reminds me of the 50 cent army.
Deflation in a debtor society, and where the public debt is substantial, is disastrous. It would be disastrous in the U.S. Japan can tolerate a little deflation because it is a nation of savers and more of the public debt is held internally. If deflation occurs, then debt acquired before deflation must be paid with currency that has greater buying power than the currency borrowed. This is equivalent to an increase in the interest rate on the debt.
Goldman Sach's Matsui is of course right. But she talked about the outlook for the stock/equity market. I always agree that flooding markets with cheap cash will be a boon for stocks. But we are talking short-medium-long term economic impacts of quantitative easing in Japan, not equity market values. You again are losing focus my friend.