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Sunday Gold Fix – Gone With the Dollar
Gold prices seem to have settled in around the $1,400 range recently. Whether or not that price is a psychological attractor for both buyers and sellers, there does seem to be some degree of market...
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The Wheels Of QE
At its most basic element, the economic plan sounds plausible enough to almost be convincing. In the Japanese version, pointed more toward an export economy than internal consumption, monetary policy...
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When A Surge In Activity Is Actually Quite Ominous
March household spending in Japan surged by 7.2% Y/Y, the highest spending growth rate since 1975. That level even beat out March 1997, the month before the previous and similar tax hike. Extrapolating...
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Japan’s GDP Problem Extends In Both Temporal Directions
This may be a more globally universal problem than specifically limited to just Japan, but since the Japanese have been encapsulated here by far the longest it has lost almost all meaning. At some...
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Our Future On Full Display Right Now
The Bank of Japan has already been pressured by events to reduce its economic expectations for 2014. At the end of 2013 there was enough cautious optimism that Japanese officials went ahead with their...
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Seven Years Without Trend and the Clock Is Ticking
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but that is not the only ingredient in the asphalt used to make the highway to Perdition. Typically, intent is augmented (or actually degraded)...
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QQE Pandering Goes Global
Japan is undoubtedly now quite the mess, but that is starting to spill-over into general view in what has to be a most unwelcome and even embarrassing occurrence for its practitioners. The problem,...
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Throwing in the Towel On Japan
In what can only be an intentional trial balloon, the Abe government in Japan is making noise about delaying the next scheduled tax increase. Considered to be one of the important “arrows” in...
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The Inevitable End
The word “unexpectedly” has made its appearance in Japan with the latest quarterly GDP release. Economists had forecast between +2.2% and +2.5%, so -1.6% counts for an “outlier” to commentary. This...
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Japan’s Continued Commitment to ‘Pro-growth’
In commentary about Shinzo Abe’s overwhelming re-election last week, there was a growing sense of divergence between rhetoric and support. Clearly, Abe’s administration had the nearly full support of...
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Central Banks Raise Risk not Inflation
The Bank of Japan shouted down the debt laden economy on Thursday evening in the US. Following Europe’s precedent, they took interest rates on a certain segment of bank assets negative. News flash:...
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Japan Is Booming, Except It’s Not
Japan is hot, really hot. Stocks are up to level not seen since 1996 (Nikkei 225). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called snap elections in Parliament to secure a supermajority and it worked. Things seem to...
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When A Surge In Activity Is Actually Quite Ominous
March household spending in Japan surged by 7.2% Y/Y, the highest spending growth rate since 1975. That level even beat out March 1997, the month before the previous and similar tax hike. Extrapolating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Japan’s GDP Problem Extends In Both Temporal Directions
This may be a more globally universal problem than specifically limited to just Japan, but since the Japanese have been encapsulated here by far the longest it has lost almost all meaning. At some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our Future On Full Display Right Now
The Bank of Japan has already been pressured by events to reduce its economic expectations for 2014. At the end of 2013 there was enough cautious optimism that Japanese officials went ahead with their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seven Years Without Trend and the Clock Is Ticking
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but that is not the only ingredient in the asphalt used to make the highway to Perdition. Typically, intent is augmented (or actually degraded)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
QQE Pandering Goes Global
Japan is undoubtedly now quite the mess, but that is starting to spill-over into general view in what has to be a most unwelcome and even embarrassing occurrence for its practitioners. The problem,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Throwing in the Towel On Japan
In what can only be an intentional trial balloon, the Abe government in Japan is making noise about delaying the next scheduled tax increase. Considered to be one of the important “arrows” in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Inevitable End
The word “unexpectedly” has made its appearance in Japan with the latest quarterly GDP release. Economists had forecast between +2.2% and +2.5%, so -1.6% counts for an “outlier” to commentary. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Japan’s Continued Commitment to ‘Pro-growth’
In commentary about Shinzo Abe’s overwhelming re-election last week, there was a growing sense of divergence between rhetoric and support. Clearly, Abe’s administration had the nearly full support of...
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