japan sux the gaspipe...

[scalf]

japan could not even sell all the bonds offered by their central bank...years of terrible monetary policy...deflation..gotta wonder if there is a big drop in nik soon????gl /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif /forums/images/icons/ooo.gif

BOJ has no power or respect, their moves only are to affect the exchange rate. They obviously have no monetary power with no interest rate to work with. I wouldn't worry too much about their bond sale, the country is floating along just fine with that huge pile of cash that local investors keep in the system. I have many Japanese friends that live in the US for now and they say that the whole world's view of their economy is overblown. It is more difficult to get work now, but not any worse than it is in the US. Most of that is just from American thinking, the whole concept on not hiring a worker for life and all. If you have a job in Japan, everything is as good as it ever has been because prices are getting cheaper and things you couldn't afford at one time you can at times now. So don't believe all the hype, life in Japan isn't so rough and that is precisely why no one really mandates or see changes there.

[scalf]

/forums/images/icons/smile.gif appeciate the comments; news emphasis on boj bond sale under subscription probably symptomatic of current bear market in usa...thanks and would appreciate a post from you as to the state of current investments...gl /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

[Wildbill]

I would think the best thing the BOJ could do is just create inflation. I would even do that in the US. Put a little liquidity into the market, quietly, then pull it back in a few months. That extra liquidity would find its way into all sorts of useful places, namely investments. If investors got the feeling the market as just a one-way bet right now, down, they would come back in and get things started up again. As that moves along and people pump the new liquidity around the economy, you create modest inflationary expectations and get people to start spending again. When you don't have interest rates to work with, the BOJ has only one way to get that liquidity and that is run the printing presses. A little inflation would go a long way in starting the cleaning up process in Japan. Problem is they are so conservative in their moves and still believe in an old-thinking model backed by political forces. Someday politicians will figure out that trying to create lower-skilled work isn't the way to develop your economy or standard of living. Until then watch a lot of countries suffer under this type of government planning. They might create liquidity, but it just goes down the black hole of corruption and political favors. If you sloshed some money around in an economy evenly where lots of people were able to put it to use, much as Greenspan did when he and the Fed went overboard in 99 for the Y2K concerns, then you see all types of economic expansion. Worries about inflation are crazy right now, but I fear Japanese leaders still won't get over it.