U.S. risks following Japan's example of stagnancy

The aging population excuse for Japan's stagnation is completely wrong. The oldsters in Japan are spending money while young families can't afford to. In the US young families can't afford to spend either and our birthrate is predominently growing amongst the poor. Nice try though. All this lost decade stuff is crap too, it's called the economic cycle of development. The US and Japan are already past their glory days. China's cycle will be even faster that's how it works. 10 years from now people will be talking about China's lost decade and someone else like Vietnam will be on an even quicker up and down cycle, it's inevitable.

Cannot compare them both. Watch America rise again.

with the low interest rates people don't keep money in banks + the banks don't want to loan money = money is invested in foreign markets with higher rates of return = the populace suffers while the central banks profit handsomely from foreign investment and take over your local bank. = Slave to Fiat debt system.

So that means bailouts and heavy government regulation are...bad things?

Who knew?

It can be worse than Japan's experience of the 90's if Obama win in 2012. Obamanomic means spread the wealth a little as his own word. Not much of the economics, but rather liberal globalization agenda to strengthen his base will drive America into the age of "deficit stupid". I hope America will wake up and reverse this trend that Japan had trodden.

America won't fall into the same trap as Japan because it doesn't have the same level of conservatism on the part of the politicians and political disinterest on the part of the people. Also, America can regulate its youthful population better than Japan through immigration, which it does not have the same level of fear and xenophobia about.

Quoting Republicans as saying that stimulus spending is a bad idea is meaningless. Presenting their opinions as if they were facts is very poor reporting. Of course, they're going to say it won't work and use Japan as an example, but saying something doesn't make it true. The current crop of Republicans want Obama to fail at all costs, including seeing America sink more deeply into economic difficulty.

Japan's debtors are almost 100% Japanese whilst those of the U.S. are mostly foreigners. The U.S. economy can only survive as long as Japan and China help make up for the huge U.S. budget deficit. Japan's example offers very little guidance in that respect. The magic of the U.S. economy is already lost and the world are actually beginning to flounder to square up to the doomsday/big bang or the end of the Bretton Woods system.

Japan's lethargy (I think) is due to established distributors having the majority of the market tied up and moribund. The supermarket I've gone to for 13 years is selling the same produce on the same shelf after all this time. It's like the Soviet Union sometimes. No choice and little produce left at the end of the day. Entrepreneurs are few and far between. The prices are all ratcheted up as far as they can drain you. Same can be seen in the "entertainment" personalities on TV. Same old idiot faces for 20+ years. No new blood is allowed in.

If the US has a long period of stagnation, I think they will have been extremely lucky. Foreign debt is expected to reach 85% of GDP within 10 years, the size of the entire military budget. At that stage (if not before), the US dollar will be sold down and the whole country become poorer and less powerful. I hope this doesn't happen but it's have to see it being prevented.

The US is heading toward a long and painful recovery from the bush great recession (or depression if its you out of work). But US society is more vibrant and diversified that Japan so instead of 20 years as with Japan, or longer, it may take only 5 or so. Obama of course is fixing so many things go wrong from the last 8 years its incredible his mind does not explode. Its like FDR fixing the last republican mistakes to cause a depression, Hoover.

Japan in fact may never recover as jobs, real ones, are so scare. Japan is a long term sell for sure.

America is much more flexible than Japan. ANYTHING can happen in America over the next few years, most likely HUGE change.. for better or worse. I personally think the U.S. will fracture into regions that are either tools of the Fed or independent rebel States (I really wish Oregon, Washington and British Columbia would merge...), but I digress... Japan will be pretty much the same for quite awhile, I think, and the rest of the world will pull Japan along like some demented old fart that needs mobility assistance.

[U.S. risks following Japan's example of stagnancy ]

It already seems to be that way on the political front.

Dear Mr. USAEXPAT: Thanks for eplaining the situation we are currently in, in a plain simple manner for us common folks.

The concept of debt deflation is not difficult to grasp if you take the time. Any junior high school student could get it if it was explained to them. Unfortunately, the leaders of the USA, like the leaders of Japan before them, either don't get it, or worse, they do. In either case they did the same thing. They either naively think they can fix the problem, or they know they can't, but also know that they can't afford to not pretend to try to fix it. Because it will be a long way down.

When financial systems in other countries, such as Indonesia and some of the countries in Southeast Asia, suffered serious problems, the US advised them to let the banks fail and then pick up the pieces and move forward. The countries that followed that advice rebounded far more quickly than those, such as Japan, that did not. Ironically, the US is not following its own advice, and thus likely is doomed to suffer a lengthy period of stagnation, just like Japan.

The countries that followed that advice rebounded far more quickly than those, such as Japan, that did not. Ironically, the US is not following its own advice, and thus likely is doomed to suffer a lengthy period of stagnation, just like Japan

They aren't? Banks are failing left and right in the US. You're not reading the news.