Elaine Meinel Supkis
Increasingly, it is painfully obvious that the Japanese 'depression' isn't merely not happening at all, it is a vicious scam being pulled on us by the Japanese government and industrialists. The flood of news tonight from overseas makes this no longer a proposition by myself but crystal clear so that even the dumb idiots teaching economics at Harvard should be able to figure things out. Also, the flood of 'liquidity' from this 'carry trade' magic scam might be....hold on to your computer key boards...$533 TRILLION. Amazing. Horrifying. And it grew nearly 25% this year alone. We are in serious trouble.
Confidence among Japan's largest manufacturers held near a two-year high and companies said they're increasing spending, supporting the central bank's argument for a third interest-rate increase in seven years.The Tankan, Japan's most closely watched business survey, showed confidence among large manufacturers was unchanged at 23 points in June from March and near December's two-year high of 25, the Bank of Japan said in Tokyo today. The result matched the median estimate of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. A positive number means optimists outnumber pessimists.
Sentiment among non-manufacturers held at a 15-year high of 22 points for a third quarter as the export-led expansion creates jobs and spurs consumer spending. The survey supports expectations that the bank will raise rates as soon as August.
Blimey. If Japan is in a depression it is the most peculiar one in history. And tonight, there are several new sceptics publishing stories about this miraculous, amazing 'depression' and some people are actually figuring out, this is all the biggest scam on earth. It is amazing the Japanese are holding out the idea they just might raise interest rates from a laughable half of a percent to maybe three quarters of a percent! Wow. What next? The yen will strengthen? Naw.
They won't let this happen for the simple reason, they are getting very powerful and rich playing this 'depression' scam and why stop? The US traitors running our own empire into the ground are happy with the Japanese destroying our industrial base! The hedge fund hell hounds need this system set up by the Bank of Japan to eat. And the privateers of the equity funds need the Japanese scam to work so they can dump zillions of dollars in debts onto Western businesses!
The yen traded near a record low versus the euro after a Bank of Japan quarterly Tankan survey, which showed confidence among Japan's largest manufacturers stayed close to a two-year high.The report failed to boost prospects the central bank will lift Japan's key interest rate from 0.5 percent, the least of any major economy. The yen declined to a record low against the euro and a 4 1/2-year low versus the dollar last month as reports showed industrial production fell for a third month and consumer prices unexpectedly dropped in May.
And here is the second news story today which, if I read the Japanese tea leaves correctly, means they will not raise rates but will jigger the domestic spending numbers to continue to hide inflation, something they are good at, better than the fumblebums running the Federal Reserve in the US. The Japanese will let the yen rise only if the dollar goes up. If then. They seem secure in this game and don't fear the Chinese for now or the Europeans because this week, 210 major corporations in Japan that are 'traded' in the Nikkei voted to NOT allow any hedge fund hell hounds or equity privateers into Japan! Nope, no take overs for the Japanese. They have slammed the door shut and are now laughing behind it, gleeful that their game is working splendidly since no American politician is yelling about this.
Bribes work and America has an army of traitors and fools driving us off this cliff.
Honda Motor Co., Japan's second- biggest automaker, may increase this month its profit forecast for the current financial year because of the ``favorable impact'' of the yen's decline, Chairman Satoshi Aoki said.The automaker estimated in April profit will drop 2.9 percent to 575 billion yen ($4.7 billion) in the year to March 31, from 592 billion yen the previous year. A weaker yen boosts the value of repatriated profits from the U.S. and Europe for Honda, which earns as much as 70 percent of its net income in the U.S. The yen fell 4.3 percent last quarter versus the dollar.
Translation: HAHAHAHA, silly foreign devils! We fooled you! Weak yen makes for strong Japanese, we triumph over you atom bomb persons! So, 70% of Honda's income is from the US, eh? Ain't selling much at home, are they? Nor is Toyota! Or any of these guys.
Small cars comprise three-quarters of all cars sold in India because they cost less and are more fuel-efficient than sedans. Suzuki and Hyundai control about 70 percent of India's car market because they mainly sell hatchbacks.
*snip*
Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, is designing a $2,500 car to compete in India with the low-cost model planned by India's third-biggest carmaker Tata Motors Ltd., Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said in May. Tata will next year sell a car priced as low as 100,000 rupees that will become the nation's cheapest automobile.
The Japanese are now invading India. They will undersell and undercut anyone who opposes them and if they have to make the rupee rise in value to do this, they will use their gigantic FOREX reserves to pull up the rupee..against the yen. They don't care if the rupee is cheaper with the euro. And this manipulation of all world currencies by and for Japan is thanks to their FOREX reserves which our demented professorial teachers at Harvard can't understand why they built up this fund in the first place! Well, DUH.
Here is yet another typical clueless American swallowing the Japanese whale whole:
After the almighty credit-fuelled top in Tokyo stocks and Japanese real estate of 1989, the world's second-largest economy remains a basket case.Far from enjoying huge capital inflows, as Bloomberg reports, "the Japanese Yen is down 6.6% versus the US Dollar and more than 12% versus the Euro in the last 12 months." It's flirting with a two-decade low against Sterling. Measured against gold, the Yen hasn't bought so little since April 1985. It's dropped by more than one-half in the last two years alone.
Yet despite the Yen's incredible vanishing trick on the foreign exchange market, its purchasing power at home continues to rise. Such a phenomenom may seem weird, even alien, to anyone living and investing outside Japan. It up-ends the natural law that makes prices go up, little by little, with each day that passes. Here in West London, for instance, the staff of BullionVault now find a shop selling chocolate bars for less than 45 pence (90¢), no matter how small – not even a Kit-Kat! London's train stations, meantime, no longer sell any kind of liquid to thirsty commuters, not even a bottle of water, for less than £1.19 ($2.38).
But in Japan prices keep falling instead of rising, and this aberration has been in effect for more than 12 years. In spite of losing nearly a fifth of its Dollar value since the start of 2005, the Yen now buys more – not less – than it used to.
HAHAHA! Banzai! Die, foreign devils! Money is a fiat thing that a government and a ruthless national bank can manipulate to their heart's content especially if they force their peons to use this currency only at home and no one on earth wants to touch a yen because it stinks outside of Japan but thanks to the magicians running Japan, this worthless, useless currency overseas suddenly get magical value at home! And it buys everything just nicely, thank you! Banzai! Die for the Emperor! Invade China!
Of course, eventually everyone will figure out what I have figured out long ago and slowly move to stop the Japanese goverment only the rich traitors running America are making out like bandits thanks to this Japanese scam so it will continue until the bitter end.
We are witnessing the greatest volatility in history of the global stock markets, and there is no end in sight to the amount of liquidity provided by the Bank of Japan. Earlier last week, the Bank for International Settlements said turnover of interest rate, currency and stock index derivative contracts soared 24% to a mind boggling USD 533 trillion in the first quarter versus the previous quarter.Earlier on Friday last, the Bank of Japan chief Fukui surprised the market by ruling out a July rate hike, giving FX traders the green light to hammer the Japanese yen to five years lows against the US dollar, and record lows against the Aussie dollar and Euro. By opening the door for a big Japanese yen devaluation, FX carry traders sent global stock markets thru the roof, and ignored the gravitational pull of weaker global bond markets. If you can predict the direction of the Japanese yen exchange rate, you can predict the next major move in the global stock markets.
Derivatives are shooting for the moon! This system is honey and milk for them. $533 TRILLION???? Did I read this right? This money is all phantom wealth. It is the result of a lot of chanting and wand waving on the part of quite a few slippery lying bastards. At least the Indians realize who is at the bottom of this scam! They are examining the Japanese closely. They can see Japan will destroy their native industries just like it has here in the US. Note that this isn't happening to China! The Dragon is not stupid.
Indeed, the only intelligent analysis I have read this last week is from India. And China. Both of these huge nations' leaders talk to each other just as the Chinese dragon talks to the Russian bear. They are slowly working out a system that will deal with Japan's fake depression and the liquidity it is unloading on everyone, sinking the entire planet into incredible debts. $533 trillion is tremendous. And it is very dangerous and the US should be stopping this except Goldman Sachs runs our Treasury and other systems so they benefit form this half a gazillion in debt we are drowning in.
From Xinhau:This is the Chinese picture of the brand new Japanese bullet train. The trains I ride here in the Northeast corridor, the fastest trains in America, poke along barely breaking 60 mph. It rattles along lopsided tracks that heave and weave as our antique Amtrak car rocks back and forth as if this is the reign of Queen Victoria and not the 21st Century!
So, in depressions lasting over 14 years, do governments build fancy train systems? Do depressions feature unemployment at 3%? Huh? Now for a peek at the Japanese news service headlines:
Monday, July 2, 2007 12:22 a.m. (JST)July-Sept Outlook Improves For Restaurant, Oil Sectors: Survey
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The restaurant and petroleum industries are likely to see improved conditions in the July-September quarter, underpinning a steady economic expansion already buoyed by strong export demand, according to Nikkei survey results compiled Sunday.
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Big Firms Rehire 50%-Plus Of Retiring Employees: SurveyTOKYO (Nikkei)--Major Japanese firms rehired more than 50% of all employees who reached the official retirement age of 60 in fiscal 2006, with Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) retaining 56% of retiring personnel under its re-employment system, a Nikkei survey shows.
They are so busy at work, not only are there no layoffs, HALF of the workers are NOT retiring! They are staying. And so it goes: I see layoffs all over England and America. The English are very angry about hedge fund and equity vultures destroying jobs. Yet the pound is soaring against the yen and the dollar! What gives? Everything is widdershins, backwards and upside down. Opposite of reality.
European governments have stepped up efforts to lure under-fire private equity firms to abandon the UK and relocate to their jurisdictions, where there is less public scrutiny and outrage at low taxes.The news of increased lobbying efforts from countries including Switzerland, Luxembourg and Ireland comes as another group of the UK's buyout titans prepares for a televised grilling by a Treasury Select Committee on Tuesday. The committee will seek to clarify a raft of issues, like whether the industry presents a threat to pension funds and why many practitioners pay as little as 10 per cent tax.
I reported on this earlier. The penchant of these equity goon squads is to take that massive carry trade liquidity out of Japan and unload it upon the British people and to pay for this privilage, they lay off thousands and thousands of workers. Britain can and probably will go into a true depression which is when unemployment is NOT 3% but 30% and the currency is NOT super-weak but super-strong!
From the Independent:
However, some experts worry that pension funds will start investing just when the market looks close to its peak. Adam Bushby, a pensions lawyer at Lawrence Graham, said: "More money is going to go into private equity and hedge funds. Private equity transactions are highly leveraged, so the results may be that pension schemes will be at greater risk. The cliff face will be even higher if there is a downturn."
Note that British trains are nearly as crummy as American trains! There is no money for upgrading these systems at all. These trains are old, ugly, slow and dangerous. I love trains and can't stand these! China is building trains all over the place but the 'rich' US and 'rich' England countries can't build a trolley line! GAH.
This funny money which passes through Japan where magic wands are waving frantically, are being fed into PRIVATE HANDS where it can't be examined or tracked. I call this MONEY LAUNDERING. And it certainly looks like a laudromat! Bubble bubble, toil and trouble. All people in industrial nations should be demanding the books of these 'private' clowns and criminals be opened and inspected! This includes the biggest ones of all, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. Maybe we can hire the Chinese to do the examinations. They can run the re-education camps, too.
From the International Herald Tribune:
May 30, 2007SINGAPORE: Citigroup, the world's second-biggest bond underwriter, is arranging more private offerings of Asian high-risk, high-yield debt to meet increased demand from hedge funds.
Companies in Asia outside Japan will, for the first time, raise more from high-yield bonds through private placements than public sales this year, said Jeremy Amias, the head of fixed income, currencies and commodities for the Asia-Pacific region at Citigroup.
Asian companies sold about $2 billion worth of bonds rated below investment grade through public offerings last year, Amias said. It is easier for banks like Citigroup and ING Holding to arrange private bond sales, which allow companies to raise money while avoiding regulations imposed on publicly traded securities.
We passed yet another crossroads, another warning sign as we drive forwards, off the cliff. So, companies are now getting the majority of their funding from the funny money magicians in Asia. And note the second paragraph: it is EASIER for them to make deals when no one can see if it isn't an Enron scam! And they don't want any supervision. For good reason.
It is all a scam! The monetarist vision of the world was naive at best, cynically dangerous at worst. The pretense that we can, with winks and nods, have a global fiat system that has only two things to check or balance it, namely, interest rates and the sale of bonds, has been figured out and toyed with and is now a totally fake system with dynamics set into motion that are destroying our nation since we are the ones FOOTING THIS DAMN BILL!
WE are the ones with no FOREX funds! WE are the ones with huge public and even bigger private debts! WE are the ones protecting and upholding this system and paying over a trillion dollars a year to keep it going at our own expense.
When will we figure this out? Thank god, I don't tear my hair out when frustrated or I would be bald.
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533 Trillion!
Or is it more or less? Who can say? At that level, numbers no longer have any meaning. It is all in our minds. It exists nowhere else. Its only tangible form is reams of paper and electrons. Both tend to vaporize quickly.
This form of debt cannot be repaid, and all parties to this abstract game understand that. That is why all the secret meetings and accords are being held everywhere by the ruling elites. They intend to avoid liability, which would have to be paid in blood, since there is no amount of money in the world today that can pay off 533 trillion or whatever.
All creditors, or those left holding the bag, expect to be paid: either in money or in blood.
Posted by: DeVaul | July 02, 2007 at 05:11 PM
I think most of this money is imaginary and it will vanish without a trace. Along with several million people.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 02, 2007 at 11:55 PM
Very good article. I enjoyed reading it. I am doing some research concerning Japan and the Yen Carry Trade, etc. I am trying to figure out what to do with my Japanese Index Fund contained within my stock portfolio. I originally purchased the Fund a few years back because of something I read concerning the idea that buying Japan was a means of accessing the Chinese market. That made sense to me at the time, and I have not lost any money buy owning this asset.
I am having second thoughts right now though considering all of the turmoil in the world, particularly issues concerning U.S. debt and the concurrent rise in gold. I have recently shifted more money into bonds and gold as a defensive measure and I have a hefty cash position as well.
I know that Japan is an important world economy and I also know the the world's economies are quite interconnected. Most governments are in the business of protecting their businesses and their citizens. Low Japanese interest rates and the Carry Trade keep the economy moving and also help out others in the world economy as well; providing cheap money to buy assets with. A rise in Japanese interest rates apparently affects many things. This article suggests that Japan is actually in pretty good shape and the low Japanese interest rates have no small effect in this situation. My problem is that if interest rates rise in Japan then what would be the consequences for its own stock market and the rest of the world as well. The Carry Trade might diminish causing the fall in price of many assets purchased through the Carry Trade, particularly if U.S. interest rates do not rise, but money would also be attracted to Japanese assets like stocks. So, the Japanese market would rise, but the negative would be of course that the Yen would appreciate and this would affect their exports. But, the Japanese do seem to smart enough to have branch plants all throughout the world. So, my problem still remains as to sell Japan or on the other hand realize that people still like to own quality Japanese companies in spite of everything and that the world is not going to end when the Carry Trade does.
Posted by: Carl Baydala | July 14, 2007 at 10:21 PM
Interesting to read your depiction of the Japanese policy of
low-interest-rate and weak-yen as successful and smart. I'd like to
add the fact, that Japan is one of the top ranked pubic-debt countries
worldwide. This means for the BoJ it is extremely expensive to rise
rates. This makes the harmonization of national rates in short and mid
term improbable.
In your article you use the term "we" from an US perspective and
describe "we" as suffering of the burden of receiving other peoples
money for financing your daily consumption. From an European
perspective it is disturbing to see the huge amount of money the US is
borrowing abroad especially in China and Japan. Nevertheless you
should not blame other countries for the consequences of bad habits on
US federal, institutional, and personal level.
I agree, USA should invest in trains and infrastructure - not wars.
Posted by: J. Walter | July 18, 2007 at 09:23 AM
I agree with you 100% Walter!
I constantly compare the US to a baby: we want Santa Claus to give us everything. We consume more than our fair share. Fixing our egotistical problems will be very difficult because we can lash out like the Germans in 1914 and 1939.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 18, 2007 at 10:56 PM