Do you think the performance of the stock market in a country reflects the performance of the economy as a whole?

No it is not. Check out the performance of the Neikki and compare it to the devaluation of the Yen. 30% of Japans buying power gone since per covid down from 98 yen to the USD to 66 yen to the USD. To work in the Japan society you need food, and energy. Both are imported commodities. Food because there is only one growing season per 12 months so winter see food imports double. Energy because of the shutting down of the nuclear power plants.

It's an investment market, so pretty limited as an assessment of the overall "real economy." There's a ton of other metrics to measure economic health anyway.

 30% of Japans buying power gone since per covid down 

Mainly because the US and other economies were forced to hike interest rates to cope with much high inflation levels. Japan has stayed the course -- because it could.

Japan's trade and investment position globally is rock solid. It has been running a current-surplus (while many of its rivals are in deficit), while it remains the world's largest creditor nation. The problem at home is that the corporations and other employers are reluctant to share their record-size wealth with the people who work for them.

We should keep giving these mega corporations huge tax breaks though.

Do you think the performance of the stock market in a country reflects the performance of the economy as a whole?

Rhetorical question which rentier capital with a neo-feudal agenda obviously knows the answer to?

https://jp.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-buybacks/cash-hoarding-japanese-firms-please-investors-as-share-buybacks-hit-record-idUKL3N20941K/

It is obviously orthogonal to the economic experience of the Japanese worker.

Japan is wasting its savvy, educated proletariat in the service of intellectually deficient propertied, connected, crony rentier class who benefit from the financialization of the economy with no innovation.

In my experience in business, during a bull market business spending and hiring is liable to be high leading to more consumer spending. The whiplash which I lived through during the internet bubble pop in 2003 and the Lehman Shock of 2007 when professionals were thrown on the street and moved back in their parents' basement suggests that the hangover is proportional to the exuberance. Thus, I am a saver and very conservative investor.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange index has roughly doubled in price over the past ten years.

Is the Japanese economy today doing twice as well as it was in 2014? I don't think so.

Of course not. Only politicians want people to think so. And that they are somehow responsible if it goes up.

The problem with a decent minimum wage holding back Japan society on a better life. It under 1200 yen an hour. The UK minimum wage is 11. 44 pounds per hour. Australia it is $22 AUD an hour. That double Japan's minimum wage. The Japanese minimum wage earner will put that money straight back in the system through better education and a better lifestyle instead of surviving on tofu. I know a lot of Japanese minimum wage earners and Tofu is their main source of protein and not by choice. The worst part about this is Japan the world's 4th biggest economy can easy afford to double the minimum wage to 2500 yen per hour.

Seriously? of course not.

Of course not. We’ve fallen for the excuse our nations ills are based on some disabled person,immigrants, LGBTQ or an unemployed person (who’s looking for a job) rather than looking UP at the multi billionaires, millionaires, companies who can dodge tax, hide money off shore, and treats stocks and shares as earning, but say they earn nothing. Maybe we should be looking UP, rather than down and asking………. Who really is benefiting from the minimum wage and forcing people to tip to top up peoples living wage.

The rich are getting richer, while the poor and middle class are struggling to make both ends meet. That's Japanese Economy 101.

It is called stock market manipulation!

The stock market is not necessarily a good barometer of the economy.

In the Weimar republic’s bout with inflation just over 100 years ago, stocks there did fantastic too.

Same in Zimbabwe.

Japan is not Zimbabwe or Weimar Republic yet, but these examples are enough to answer the question.

Also, the people who are invested in the stock market may have made some profits because the stock market went up.

If the stock market crashes by 50-75% again, they will lose most if not all of those profits too.

That’s because it’s about risking one’s capital.

The Marxists might love to siphon off some of the unrealized gains from investors, but that’s just silly. Do that and the people will risk their capital elsewhere. And they already pay tax on realized gains (except when using a nisa account...)

So then what are they gonna do? “Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels”, or similar?

The biggest falls in the US stock markets after 1929 and before 2008 was Eisenhower having a heart attack and JFK being assassinated. How do either of those events reflect the performance of the US economy at that time?

When asked about him losing over a billion dollars on the 2008 crash, Warren Buffett said, it'll be back. What did he do? Bought stocks cheap.

biggest falls in the US stock markets after 1929 and before 2008 was Eisenhower having a heart attack and JFK being assassinated

Surely that 1987? Black Monday must have been a doozy too? At least that’s the one I sometimes hear old timers still talk about.

What did he do? Bought stocks cheap.

Indeed, best time to take such risk. And he is a hero as a result.

Just imagine though if he was thinking that any gains he might make would be confiscated by Marxists…

biggest falls in the US stock markets after 1929 and before 2008 was Eisenhower having a heart attack and JFK being assassinated

Surely that 1987? Black Monday must have been a doozy too? At least that’s the one I sometimes hear old timers still talk about.

If you were actually familiar with historical processes instead of neo-lib boilerplate you would know that under Eisenhower was the period of greatest broad-based American prosperity and growth. And a progressive 90% tax rate on super-rich rentier investors.

https://apnews.com/article/2184e9f18f6f4acca1ed007bdcdca818

Quite the Marxist confiscator of investment riches Eisenhower eh?

If you were actually familiar with historical processes

Like your master, Marx?

under Eisenhower was the period of greatest broad-based American prosperity and growth. And a progressive 90% tax rate on super-rich rentier investors.

JFK didn’t think things were so great, hence he came in and pledged to cut taxes… One of the greatest US presidents.

No. As I said the other day in a comment, there is not one economy. It's better to consider at least three distinct economies: The wealthy are doing fine, the middle classes are feeling the squeeze due to interest rate hikes, whilst the proles are being hammered and pushed into poverty and debt by inflation.

The strength of the economy of the wealthy is used to cover up the economic damage impacting on everyone else. Hence the amusing stat of almost-but-never-quite-2% inflation, when some retail food prices double.

So when an article simply talks about 'the economy' or one aspect of it, particularly the casino that is the stock market, distrust it. The stock market is entirely divorced from the economies of the middle classes and the poor.

There was a pretty good debate hosted at the Foreign Correspondent's Club last week which addressed this issue, between Richard Katz and Jesper Koll, its worth a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsD00-keDwk&t=74s

There was a pretty good debate hosted at the Foreign Correspondent's Club last week which addressed this issue, between Richard Katz and Jesper Koll, its worth a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsD00-keDwk&t=74s

Excellent deep dive and illustrates how at odds the BOJ and LDP pronouncements are with the economy the Japanese people experience.

It is truly feudal.

The stock market is the only savior of Japanese real estate and listed companies. They artificially drive up each others stock prices so as to be able to keep borrowing against their companies inflated values and to keep up the prices of real estate which the banks hold as collateral. If loans would be called in the domino’s start falling.

we are in a 2nd bubble worst than the first and more unrecoverable than the first as domestic spending will only decline and can not drive a recovery.

it is the typical Japanese thinking. Keep winning time by changing nothing, head in the sand, ignore facts and the bad ghosts will go away as long as you keep your eyes shut

I have stocks. One day they may be up and down another day.

Do not tell me anything.

What I know is the cost of living.

Prices keep going up for everything and wages remain stagnant.

These things we know how the country is doing.

To the experts/economists believe stock market do not reflect economy, I say, think again. Market driven by profits and growth so it depends on the economy. Good policies are needed for sustain and growth of econ while stock market sometimes fluctuate based on speculations and others, but overall strong econ drive market. The question is, if the elite economists who always mention mathematical & quantitative theories to credential their reasoning, why inflation and unemployment can't be controlled for good? Econ is not science but practical and common sense supply and demand balancing act.

Isn't it kind of like . . .

"For every reaction, there is an opposite and equal reaction."

No. Is actually the opposite. The Yen is at the worst values in history, inflation the biggest recorded, salaries are getting lower and lower....