“As Americans, you have that naïve assumption that people all over the world are struggling and way behind you. They’re not. Sweden and South Korea have more advanced high speed internet networks. Japan has the most advanced trains and transportation systems. Norwegians make more money. The biggest and most advanced plane in the world is flown out of Singapore. The tallest buildings in the world are now in Dubai and Shanghai. Meanwhile, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world.”
gulou: “In 1992, 80 percent of young Japanese workers had regular jobs. By 2006, half were temps.” — “What Americans Should Understand About Japan’s 1990s Economic Bust: The Slacker Trap” by Ethan Devine, The Atlantic, 24 April 2013. Image: Akio Suga / EPA / Corbis
“Japan’s urban mines of many metals exceed 10% of world reserves, including gold, (approx. 6,800 tons, or about 16% of the world’s current reserves of 42,000 tons), silver (60,000 tons, or 22%), indium (61%), tin (11%), and tantalum (10%). Many other metals, including platinum, also rank in the top 5 in comparison with reserves by country.”
did-you-kno: Source
Bloomberg: Japan to Buy European Debt With Currency Reserves to Weaken Yen themacroevent: Bold, yet brilliant, move. Japan plans to use its foreign-exchange reserves to buy bonds issued by the European Stability Mechanism and euro-area sovereigns, as the nation seeks to weaken its currency, Finance Minister Taro Aso said. “The financial stability of Europe will help the stability of foreign-exchange rates, including the yen,” Aso told reporters today at a briefing in Tokyo. “From this perspective, Japan plans to buy ESM bonds,” he said. The purchase amount is undecided, Aso said. The move may help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe temper criticism of Japan’s currency policies from trading partners such as the U.S. The yen has fallen around 8 percent against the dollar since mid-November on Abe’s pledge to reverse more than a decade of deflation as his Liberal Democratic Party won an election victory last month. “The Europeans would be happy to see Japan buy ESM bonds, so Japan can avoid criticism from abroad and at the same time achieve its objective,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. and a former central bank official. The yen erased gains after Aso’s comments, reaching 87.81 per dollar, before appreciating again to 87.51 as of 7:14 a.m. New York time. The Japanese currency appreciated 0.3 percent to 114.86 per euro. The ESM held its first debt auction today, selling 1.9 billion euros ($2.5 billion) of three-month bills at an average yield of minus 0.0324 percent. Investors placed bids for 6.2 billion euros of the securities, the Bundesbank said. (Source: bloomberg.com)

Bloomberg: Japan to Buy European Debt With Currency Reserves to Weaken Yen

themacroevent:

Bold, yet brilliant, move.

Japan plans to use its foreign-exchange reserves to buy bonds issued by the European Stability Mechanism and euro-area sovereigns, as the nation seeks to weaken its currency, Finance Minister Taro Aso said.

“The financial stability of Europe will help the stability of foreign-exchange rates, including the yen,” Aso told reporters today at a briefing in Tokyo. “From this perspective, Japan plans to buy ESM bonds,” he said. The purchase amount is undecided, Aso said.

The move may help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe temper criticism of Japan’s currency policies from trading partners such as the U.S. The yen has fallen around 8 percent against the dollar since mid-November on Abe’s pledge to reverse more than a decade of deflation as his Liberal Democratic Party won an election victory last month.

“The Europeans would be happy to see Japan buy ESM bonds, so Japan can avoid criticism from abroad and at the same time achieve its objective,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. and a former central bank official.

The yen erased gains after Aso’s comments, reaching 87.81 per dollar, before appreciating again to 87.51 as of 7:14 a.m. New York time. The Japanese currency appreciated 0.3 percent to 114.86 per euro.

The ESM held its first debt auction today, selling 1.9 billion euros ($2.5 billion) of three-month bills at an average yield of minus 0.0324 percent. Investors placed bids for 6.2 billion euros of the securities, the Bundesbank said.

(Source: bloomberg.com)

The 96 Charts That Have To Be Seen To Believed For 2013 Tyler Durden, zerohedge.com […] In this 2013 Outlook, Michael Cembalest, JPMorgan Asset Management’s Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy, provides a comprehensive summary of the global factors at play, with a tone of optimism grounded in realism. […] In the US, Europe, Japan and the UK, governments account for 75% of all borrowing that is taking place, and central banks account for 60% of all lending, both multiples higher than anything we have seen (or read about) before. As a sign of the times, monetary policy was the primary issue in the recent election in Japan; voters gave a decisive victory to the party that campaigned on forcing its central bank to provide more of it. Central banks appear determined to reflate financial assets, hoping for whatever spillover they can get to economic growth.
To boost the economy, Japan wants to increase the proportion of young women who work to 73 percent from 66.5 percent. →
“Japan’s days as an export superpower seem numbered. Its once vast current account surplus has vanished altogether since the Fukushima disaster last year.”
“Zinn roots his argument that the Japanese were prepared to surrender before the United States dropped the atomic bomb on a diplomatic cable from the Japanese to the Russians, supposedly signaling a willingness to capitulate. Wineburg writes that Zinn not only excludes the responses to the cable, but also that he fails in the later editions of the book to incorporate the vast new scholarship that emerged after the death of the Emperor Hirohito with the publication of memoirs and new availability of public records, all of which support the position of Japan’s resolve to fight to the last.”
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