politics

Abe keeps up rhetoric against BOJ

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Unless companies and households started spending more in the belief that prices would rise in the future.

What a bogus theory. When the iPad, smartphones, ultraportable laptops. etc., first came out, everyone knew that cheaper models would follow. Did that stop them from buying one? NO! These products racked up massive surge of sales. Are consumers still watching cathode ray tube TV sets? Nope.

What about food, energy, rent, education and transportation -- the biggest expenses for a middle class household? Do people dampen their spending in the belief they'll be cheaper later? Well, if so, they'd freeze and starve to death first.

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warning that the country cannot restore fiscal health unless it beats deflation.

Wanna know the REAL reasons politicians LOVE inflation?

1) Steady inflation means a steadily rising GDP and stock index - the only way politicians can keep score

2) Steady inflation means it will be easier to pay back the money they borrow to pay for governement

Everybody else LOVES deflation. Who wouldn't like the idea of saving ten percent of your money every year, only to have it INCREASE in value over time. Who doesn't like buying stuff, noticing that it's CHEAPER than it used to be?

Only a fool would want money that you HAVE TO SPEND before it becomes worthless.

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“unlimited” monetary easing

The people of Japan will very gratitutes to Abe's policy! That means more easy money to spend

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The world has been laughing at Abe and he is the last petrso person to know it.

The world wants him to test the water how his plan works. When his plan failed, Japan will be erased as a competitor in global market. . This guy does not know how to play a geopolitical and a global economy chess games ten steps ahead in world arena. He can only see 1 inch ahead-ELECTION.

Very angry.

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Abe also said that if the government were to set a policy target for the Bank of Japan it would not necessarily be infringing on the central bank’s independence, as long as it retained the freedom to decide how to do it.

yeah and it is not fascism if you tell people what to do as long as they decide how to do what you told them. Uh, ok?

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"Everybody else LOVES deflation."

Not true Gaiijnfo.

It is simple economics.

Old people with cash, no debt, and no income like deflation. Young people with no cash, but significant debt do NOT like deflation.

The irony of Abe's position is that rural LDP voters are old, with cash and no income, whereas DPJ voters are younger and more urban.

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The LDP, once in power, will also boost fiscal spending mainly to build new roads and bridges

OMG! abe you idiot! There is already tons of yen being spent year in year out on infrastructure, PLENTY OF YEN you idiots in nagatacho have every year!

Nagatacho needs to STOP waste, stealing, K/B, amakudari & brutal incompetence & inefficiency, DO THAT & there is TONS more yen!

This imbecile wants Japan to be like Zimbabwe where prices increase weekly.........IDIOT!

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The irony of Abe's position is that rural LDP voters are old, with cash and no income, whereas DPJ voters are younger and more urban.

Excellent post-;)

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Ever see a really bad B-movie that was so terrible you couldn't stop watching? You just had to see how terrible it would get. Well Abe Part I was that bad B-movie and we were so happy to see it end. Amused but equally terrified that it had gone as far as it did.

Now the LDP (Read as DPJ Senior's Edition) want to force us all to watch Abe Part II. Only now we know that the story ends badly and is a waste of our time and our money.

Abe's policies are almost as much of a nightmare as having to watch endless sequels to a failed B-movie. Only the pain will be very real for working people. I just hope the people of Japan are not foolish enough to reinstall the LDP. Despite Noda's equally bone headed thinking, he is less dangerous than Abe and LDP for the moment.

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KundongNov. 28, 2012 - 09:59AM JST

It is simple economics. Old people with cash, no debt, and no income like deflation. Young people with no cash, but significant debt do NOT like deflation. The irony of Abe's position is that rural LDP voters are old, with cash and no income, whereas DPJ voters are younger and more urban.

Excellent post. It's really sad that even the educated under-50's in Japan can't grasp this.

In America and Europe, it's a class war, about making sure that the rich, banks and multinationals pay their tax whack. In Japan it's not a war of nationals (China v Japan) or a class war, like Europe/USA, it's a generational war about the dankai generation who have it all and the younger generation who will inherit the debt of their parents, which was created to ensure the dankai generation kept having it all.

Goes this topic come up on the electoral radar, does it hell?

I might not like Hashimoto, but until he joined Ishihara and the geriatrics, this could have been a meaningful election about the unfair distribution of wealth and resources in Japan.

In all my travels I can honestly say I have never met sucha selfish generation as the older generation of Japan. They really don't care what Japan they leave future generations.

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Japan went down the inflation road before and look what happened! Abe wants to spend more digging up the already concreted parts ofJapan to concrete them again I have driven on the LDP's roads to nowhere and been amazed at the waste. Japan is entering its 3rd decade of malaise that the LDP initiated.

I fail to see any inventive proposals to change things around....

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Like I said in another of these abe threads, screw the construction waste, give us $$$ to pay our mortgages, give $$$ to couples for the first place

At least this way PEOPLE will benefit! Then we may have $$$ to spend, those buying new accomodation will need to fill it with STUFF, get you idiot abe! Screw any more funds on useless constuction, Japan has been doing that since the 70s!

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Abe goes on about this but has he mentioned cutting any of the fat that Japanese government officals LOVE to spend money on - say, roads and bridges to no where, unneeded travel, those little clubs they head to after work to wind down, the cash they use to bribe folks... He's going after this but needs to look at his own backyard for changes that must be made. HIS party is the one that got Japan into this mess in the first place. Why no admission of this and taking responsibility for it?

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DogNov. 28, 2012 - 11:40AM JST

In America and Europe, it's a class war, about making sure that the rich, banks and multinationals pay their tax whack

In all my travels I can honestly say I have never met sucha selfish generation as the older generation of Japan. They really don't care what Japan they leave future generations.

Dog, you and I are twins in economic ideology. I believe in Demand Side Economics as well as you do. We (US) have just gone through the choice election and defeated GOP's Supply Side Economics. Now the US congress cannot come up with resolutions to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Europe is a mess. Rich nations such as Germany/France are against poor nattions such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and of course Greece Germany, France cannot get along for EU resolutions. Spain, Greece, UK are still in social unrest.

As you have said this is a class war between have vs have-not. The global bubble is bursting, and the riches are not willing to take responsibilities that includes Japanese older generations.

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Jeeezus instead of promising to build more roads and bridges to nowhere why doesn't he promise to spend cash building new schools and improving social welfare facilities!!??? what a muppet!

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Infrastructure investments make sense if you have failing infrastructure. There are some opportunities there in which schools and hospitals could be redone. That would serve society.

But other investment needs to be in other types of social infrastructure. Japan needs more structure to manage the aging population. Doctors, nurses, CNAs etc... that can contribute. It does not have to create these people. It can import them and put them work and tax them. They in turn need homes, goods, services etc... that they pay for and help bolster the economy.

Then invest in business development. Make Tohoku a technology first 5 years tax free zone. Companies from here or abroad bringing energy, technology or scientific jobs to Japan can set up at a discount with no taxes for five years and reduced rates in the future. Make it easy for them to import labor. (see above for why)

Japan needs legions of working middle class people who earn enough to pay taxes, buy things, contribute financially to society. Japan also needs small business owners who can create jobs. Make is easier, faster and less risky for people to kick off small business. Offer training and development services from the government. Offer incentives to companies so they can hire people. Offer incentives to small international companies. Including finding ways to reduce set up costs. Like offering discounted spaces around the country that are easy for new businesses to set up and pay for.

This is where we need to spend money. One yen in potentially 100 yen out in this kind of investment model.

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