Conway comments

Shockingly sad!!

He seems to have totally “lost it”!! ... Maybe pressures of the rising infection rate, the slowness of the vaccine rollout, and demands from the IOC have panicked him into being unable to think clearly and into making inane statements!!

This is a great story. Congratulations to this man!! What an inspiration to us all!! It’s quite remarkable what can be achieved!!

I thought they were supposed to close at 10:00pm!

Congratulations Chris Froome and Team Sky!! .. Brilliant finish (if you're British) to what is arguably the most gruelling sports event on the planet !! ..

The latest year on year earnings, adjusted for inflation, fell 4.3%, personal savings are negative 1.3%, and household spending is negative 2.5%, a trend that will not boost demand and prices. On the other hand firms savings are up by 12% at a whopping $1.96 trillion, yet firms don't want to raise salaries until domestic consumption shows signs of increasing!! The solution is screaming at us, but I guess Abe is afraid of upsetting his political donors so doesn't increase tax on firms profits in favour of reducing individual tax ...

It would be better not to have such a whopping sovereign debt. As the population ages, the Government will need to spend more on pensions and healthcare, and traditional JGB buyers like pension funds will be spending on pensions rather than JGB's. Also, a few years down the line, sovereign debt will exceed total household savings. So at some point, it may become necessary to borrow from the international money market. Where the marginal buyers of JGBs are foreign investors rather than domestic Japanese investors, interest rates may increase, perhaps significantly. Even at current low interest rates, Japan spends around 25-30% of its tax revenues on interest payments. At borrowing costs of 2.50% to 3.50% per annum, two to three times current rates, Japan’s interest payments will be an unsustainable proportion of tax receipts. The J Government has a few trillion dollars worth of overseas assets it can sell, and attempts to create inflation could help postpone what is beginning to look like a looming bankruptcy crisis!! ...

The probably fewer than 50% of the working population "Salary men" have no choice but to pay the correct amount of income tax, whereas self employed, crooks and whoever find a way of paying very little. If I were PM, I'd be evaluating the potential increased revenue of cutting income tax by at least 10%, and raising sales tax by the same amount. Not only would you be taxing those who avoid income tax, but the increased net income of salary men might be spent on buying goods on which he pays sales tax. The biggest losers and complainers would be the income tax dodgers, whereas the salarymen might feel quite happy to choose how he spends his higher net income. As in a few countries already, to avoid hardship to the poor, essential items such as food, medicine, heating oil and children's clothes could be zero rated for sales tax.

As the population ages, the Government will need to spend more on pensions and healthcare, and traditional JGB buyers like pension funds will be spending on pensions rather than JGB's. Also, a few years down the line, sovereign debt will exceed total household savings. So at some point, it may become necessary to borrow from the international money market. Where the marginal buyers of JGBs are foreign investors rather than domestic Japanese investors, interest rates may increase, perhaps significantly. Even at current low interest rates, Japan spends around 25-30% of its tax revenues on interest payments. At borrowing costs of 2.50% to 3.50% per annum, two to three times current rates, Japan’s interest payments will be an unsustainable proportion of tax receipts. The J Government has a few trillion dollars worth of overseas assets it can sell, and attempts to create inflation could help postpone what is beginning to look like a looming bankruptcy crisis!! ...

U/J was 96.7 at 12:00 noon when the BOJ made it's announcement and is currently around 96.3xx, so the yen is strengthening, not easing as written in the headline ..

@888naff

Could you please link us to the article you've seen re. no fault found with the battery. I saw an article a day or two ago reporting that no fault had been found with the battery charger, but I haven't seen the one you refer to.

Thanks ..

It's looking like my earlier post was a similar incident but in a ferrari, as pointed out by "Probie" ... Thanks :) ... These guys should have been born as peacocks!! ..

I remember this incident, and the video was all over the net around six months ago, The driver was a dentist and he was fired from his job and "struck off" the Japanese registered dentist list for life, which means he cannot practice dentistry ever again in Japan. He's paid a pretty steep price for his "thrill" already and it looks like there will be at least a heavy fine to come .....

Looks like we're sitting on some kind of fiscal time bomb here!! About a year ago, I read somewhere that servicing sovereign debt was costing the Japanese government around 40% of its income (tax revenue).... Must be about 10% higher now!!.....

weedkilaSEP. 24, 2011 - 07:15PM JST Why is it that they always need growth?! How much more consumerism do we need?!

Absolutely agree......Perhaps 30 years or so of debt induced growth needs to be followed by 30 years or so of savings induced contraction.....For most of the developed world and not just Europe.....

LagunaSEP. 23, 2011 - 03:52PM JST

Very well put and couldn't agree more....The extreme reactions of the markets are crazy .Might add irresponsible lending to the list, without which there would be no loans to default on....

I think the DOW fell on Friday due to the very shocking NFP data and the Nikkei fell today because of the NFP and the doubt about German support for ECB bailouts......The US has a holiday today but all European bourses are tanking... .....Recession???

A not so firm, somewhat shaky start to the week, Monday, with a 1.86% (166 point) fall......

Not sure what jobs data the writer is waiting for, but Friday's NFP data was awful, resulting in a 2.2% drop for the DJ index. I'd be surprised if the Nikkei didn't start the week with a similar fall.....Could be wrong :)

SerranoSEP. 03, 2011 - 09:39PM JST Typhoon Talas? What happened to typhoon #12?

Depending on the tracking site's counting method, I've seen tropical storm Talas numbered 12, 14 and 15W....Numbers alone are therefore confusing when there are several storms in the area at the same time, whereas all sites seem to agree on the name.....Confusion could be dangerous for international transport......

@badmigraine

Check out an item titled "Tepco finalizes a plan to cool down reactors" on the NHK World web site.... This idea was suggested here on March 28th by PepinGalarga ....Well done PepinGalarga....

Advancing the clocks a couple of hours would reduce lighting demand during the early evening peak.... Installing converters to enable transfer of surplus to demand power from West to East Japan could help in the medium term...

Brilliant! :)

Nikoniko78........I think you've explained it very well.....Thanks for the education...

He should have the book thrown at him...But It's the sheer scale of this kind of report that always amazes me. I mean not two or three girls but fifty!! I'd have thought that most girls in their age group would run a mile when approached by some creep of his age. He seems to have missed his vocation as a super salesman. Then again maybe I'm naive in totally underestimating the materialism of h.s. girls

It's true that Japanese institutions own most of the debt created by the budget deficit but isn't it still a massive problem as even with the low interest rates here it still costs the Government 40% of annual tax revenue simply to pay the interest on the debt! What would happen if interest rates were to rise? Income tax dodgers cannot avoid paying consumption tax so how about lowering income tax mainly paid by employees and raise consumption tax paid by everyone. To help the poor, food, children's clothes, medicine and heating oil could be zero rated. This way it would be the income tax dodgers who would be hit the most :)