DoubleHelix74 comments

HonestDictatorOCT. 31, 2013 - 10:58AM JST I'm completely against it. And remember folks I live in Colorado where it is now legal to toke it. I've seen first hand the people that use it (or used to use it), their mental faculties and health after long term use and the burden they're putting on our city. We've got tons of homeless folks(can't work a buck for a toke)/ wanna-be hippies/and more, and I haven't even begun with the teens and children that have been around parents that use it and their mental faculties. This is the future of our citizens. Lazy, stupid, inconsiderate, and unmotivated. I've already got a beef with the mass amount of inconsiderate smokers without adding tokers to the mix. But even with laws being enforced on how to "toke" legally people are still completely ignoring them...

Keep on advocating for legalization, but it comes with a price. Are you really willing to pay it in the long term? How stupid and pathetic do you really want future generations to be?

Are you serious? I too live in Colorado and frankly you are grossly misrepresenting the facts and your stories are ridiculous! Oh wait, you must be from the conservative guard who hates all of these people migrating to Colorado, even though we are all educated, work high paying jobs, and pay taxes... Perhaps you should move up to Weld and/or Larimer County and try to secede from the rest of the State.... For the record, I am neither pro or against the legalization but you my friend are simply making up too many tall tales! You must have watched Reefer Madness over the weekend...

DogJul. 08, 2013 - 10:28PM JST

falseflagsteveJul.

Abenomics is doing good things gor my family. Not everyone does well out of these things, that is the way of the modern world.

marieJul. 08, 2013 - 08:09PM JST

Flase, how exactly is it doing your family well?

Because he's posting from America and hopes to meet the Japanese in-laws sometime and treat them to a Yakiniku as the big paying man

OR maybe he and his family export goods from Japan... There is a noble idea! A weakened yen makes Japanese goods more competitive in the global market... The fact that corporate profits are rising in Japan due to this is a good thing as long as they offer higher wages to compensate the rising costs in Japan due to a weakened yen. If Japanese corporations decide to hoard all of these profits for themselves rather than accelerate it through the economy (in higher wages) then they will only be hurting themselves in the long-run. And how would this be Abe's fault anyway? The guy has dome immensely since taking over as PM. More than any other bone idle Japanese politician has in teh past 20 years...

I though Miyazaki wrote Kokuriko-zaka Kara in 2011? In America it is called "From Up on Poppy Hill" and is just released in larger cities like New York...

Just say yes Japan! It is so easy! Just tell these idiot senators who half will be gone in 5 years anyway that you will...

If American autos have the same playing field in Japan, they will be happy! It does not necesarily mean Japan has to buy them, right? I am an American and I have never driven an American car because of their shoddy manufacturing. I drive Toyotas because they last, don't break down, and more importantly hold their value far better than the US autos. Most in America who buy Japanese feel the same way.

It is such an easy task to figure out for the Japanese! Allow American cars to import w/o tariffs to Japan. If nobody buys them, then they will eventually go away. I have spent a lot of time in Japan and count the American cars on my fingers. That is how little I see them... Why would the Japanese buy them when their own cars are better?

@ gokai_wo_maneku,

That is a good question... I think having their goods exposed overeas without tariffs would be a good thing...

That is why I wrote this...

And as for the farmers who are upset, it is my understanding they get preferential treatment anyway. And as long as Japanese buy Japanese agri products they will not be effected, instead these farmers will be able to sell their goods over seas to places like the US who don't grow things like Daikon.

Japan joining hte TPP and free trade agreements with EU will surely benefit Japan more so than anyone else...

gokai_wo_manekuMar. 19, 2013 - 10:31AM JST

Kyle Alpert is right. US 1%ers have been trying to find a way to extract all the Japanese wealth for decades, but haven't succedded (from T. Boone Pickens in the 80s to Steal Partners now). Extract it first through the stock market, and now through insurance? I hope we keep the trade impediments as long as we can (although Reagan claimed to have removed all the impediments in SII).

IS THIS A JOKE?

Some of these comments are hilarious and shows how out of touch some are in economics and trade... One even calls it a "tornado" as if Japan having tariff free autos shipped to the US is a bad thing? And as for the farmers who are upset, it is my understanding they get preferential treatment anyway. And as long as Japanese buy Japanese agri products they will not be effected, instead these farmers will be able to sell their goods over seas to places like the US who don't grow things like Daikon. A weakened yen will only make these products more competitive too! And for those that are scared about imported agri porducts from the US, well why should you be? Don't buy it! I have been in Japanese groceries and have seen the meat section that is imported from the US and it always looks untouched! Why are so many of you upset? If wages begin to rise, Abe will look like a hero stimulating inflation. Do you prefer to keep spending money on social programs without any revenue to pay for it? Right now Japan's debt is 45 times its tax revenue. Japanese need to spend money! Otherwise it will be just like Cyprus!

(Continued)

We will most surely see inflation in the near future and that will affect emerging nations economies but for a country like Japan, that is the whole point. The issue with Japan is will the corporations raise wages to keep up with inflation. If not, easing will not mean a thing because people will not be able to afford goods anyway.

Abe and Kuroda are taking some risks but they are suppose to! No risjk no reward! Do you want Japanese companies to become less competitive? That is what Shirakawa's policies have done. Sure the Fed helped by QE's and sent investors flocking to the Yen and Swiss Franc but like the Swiss, Japan is now handling it. And lets keep in mind, this movement is based off of rhetoric only... Look at the Nuikkei 225 and the broader TOPIX since November!

We may have gone from a credit bubble to a liquidity bubble but inflation is always easier to tame than deflation or worse stagflation. There is no perfect solution, sorry to tell you that... Its not a game where you can just be black and white, like your comment is...

@ Rys2sense,

What mistakes has Bernacke made? He studied at Princeton and wrote his dissertation on the Depression. He was the perfect candidate to be there and is why he stayed there. Sure he has flooded the market with teh dollar but what was he suppose to do? Lets go back to 2009 and tell us what you would have done differently. I will be the first to admit, he may be prolonging open ended monetary policy and we should be waining ourselves off of it but I think QE's have worked wonders. Hence the markets are higher than they were before the crash and that was the Fed's move all along.

Now lets move to Japan... Abe and Kuroda have nothing else to do... The Japanese are in a two decade deflationary tailspin, wages frozen, and near zero rates. Should they adopt Shirakawa's approach? That worked so well! Look at all of the Japanese corporations who have lost tremendous marketshare globally due to a stronger Yen? When they lose profits, they lay people off... While the risks are there, Japan utilizing an open edned monetary approach si the correct thing to do. Many analysts and economists agree but we should take your word right?

And just to piggyback, China's currency hardly circulates around the world... Nobody wants to really hold that paper because they are on the brink of the bubble bursting... Every country out there wants a weaker currency so therefore its nobody's fault! Quit pointing the finger... China could be handled so easily! Just stay out of their way and let them keep doing what they are doing! Raise the military budget 10% and yet do nothing about the toxic air that has engulfed the country. The fallout will be massive to an already backwards healthcare system. Someone up top quoted the Chinese proverb about waiting by the river long enough and eventually your enemy's corpses will float by... This could not be any more true with China! Ignore them long enough and they will destroy themselves within...

Umm, How can I say this? We are already in a currency war... When you have entire continents stimulating their economies with an endless supply of liquidity, you have already began the currency war. Why do you think the Yen and Swiss Franc strengthened so much? Because it was a safe haven for investors to flock to. What Japan is doing is no different than the US and EU... And as for China, well they live on stimulus! Where would its large enterprises stand without the Central Government's endless subsidizing? Lets look at the Shadow Banking in China, where they lend like banks and do not have to adhere to regulations. The Non-Performing Loans (NPL's) in China is staggering! They, teh US, and the EU are only preventing the inevitable... A complete economic meltdown! We basically have moved from a credit bubble to a liquidity bubble worldwide! Japan wants inflation, its going to get plenty in less than a decade, we all will!

****Kimokekahuna HawaiiFeb. 26, 2013 - 12:07PM JST

Seth was being Seth.. but he is not that funny.. what is wrong with having Jay Leno.. the average age of Oscar viewers is 20 years older than 20 years ago. I knew there would be no Japan actors anywhere in sight. I guess necklaces are out and earrings are in as fashion.. stupid.. Anne Nipples Hathaway dress was just wrong. I hated that mouse of a woman who did the red carpet segment, she made other women look fat and big and then they sing a song making fun of the losers?? No class. What is up with guys all having a taller girlfriend? There is really not much glamour other than George Clooney and Argo would not shut up and let him say something. I was glad that Life of PI won some awards. Les Miserables is what theatre is about it make me cry. Only Quentin Tarantino was cool enough to promote Peace. I hate when people thank their wives... just say I thank my family, friends and co-workers. I think I would just say in my speech ... "I only have one person to thank.. Me. Goodnight Hollywood".

WOW, Do you have anything nice to say? All you did was complain!

“No one commits a crime because they saw a film. There’s nothing to support that,” Willis said. “We’re not making movies about people that have gone berserk, or gone nuts. Those kind of movies wouldn’t last very long at all.”

Really Bruce? Either you are senile or are in denial... Either way you career is winding down and nobody really wants to see ANOTHER Die hard movie! Talking about flogging a dead horse!

3 in 1.

What the heck does "Valen" mean? All I get is places in Norway. Isn't Valen plus Tarantino=Valentino (the fasion designer)? Wish I was there Tarantino to "whip me into a frenzy"

I assume its a play on Valentine's Day...

@2020Hindsight, How long do you think the Apple fanboys will conintue to buy an updated version of the iPhone that is simply regurgitated out by Apple? My guess is not very long considering the competition is building better phones to begin with...

CoolPad Quattro, a company 1 1/10th the size of Apple sells in China for a fraction of the cost and is the number one phone selling in the PRC. After Apple sold its 47.8M iPhone5's (which came in under the Streets expectations) to all its loyal followers, who else is going to buy the product? They make one phone that continues to canabalize the previous version. If they make a cheaper iPhone which tehy said they will not do in the conference call, tehn that too will canabalize other products...

Bottom line is profit margins are shrinking, compettition is heating up, and they have saturated the markets where the only people who could really afford the phone in the first place... Oh and they are no longer going to understate their earnings. Could it go to $700 again? Absolutely! Will it anytime soon? Doubtful, unless a new product launch that catches on like the other products...

Prices for Mobiles in China: In China: Apple iPhone 5 costs 5288 RMB utilizing newer technology Apple iPhone 4S costs 3088 RMB utilizing older technology Samsung Galaxy costs 1299 RMB utilizing newer technology

Now why would any person in China buy an iPhone that was released 2 years ago for almost 2.5 times the price of a modern Samsung? And lets not forget the iPhone5 price either, whic is ridiculous...

Apple either creates a cheaper phone to be sold in these types of markets and/or comes up with some groundbreaking innovative revolutionary product AGAIN. if not, the exact same thing that happened in the 80's will ghappen again... Apple will conmtinue to lose marketshare...

@ 2020Hindsight... So I listened to the conference call, did you?

If you go buy PE, yes AAPL is underpriced but that does not stop the smart money dumping the stock because its lost its legs now is it? I can show you MSFT financials and make a point about how under valued it is. But then I will tell you the stock has fone no where in almost a decade. Apple the stock is way over valued! And it is why Smart money has dumped it while people like you still hold it and will continue to do so all the way down.

And since you brought up my comment about numbers are on iPhone5, let me ask you... After they saturate the market which they have already have, who is going to buy the phone? Too expensive in China and India? Cooke and Oppenheimer blame the supplpy side for slowing demand, yet all the suppliers cut their forecasts after the earnings. If the demand was there, they wouldn't have done so...

Great time to buy Apple shares. Man, I wish I could have got them at 470. They are 514 now. A lot of idiots sold at exactly the wrong time.

I agree there is a ceiling to how much growth there is in the market. But sales and profit went up. They are at record levels. They just didn't go up by as much as previously.

Wow, you guys are sure naive... The profits were up because of the iPhone 5 launch... What is Apple going to do until the next iPhone? Apple is its own worst enemy and is replicating exactly what it did in the 1980's... They have saturated the market and refuse to lower prices to sell their phones in the biggest market of all... A major blunder in strategy that is already costing them... If Cooke like jobs before him thinjkks the Chinese will dumb down and buy a iPhone from 3 years ago, they have another thing coming. Android phones have continued to steal marketshare from Apple. Apple now has sold 47.8M iPhone 5's but that actually came in under estimates from the Street. And as I said before, whAt are they going to sell for the rest of they year? And don't buy the excuse that Cooke and Oppenheimer claim that sales slowed due to suppliers not able to keep up with demand. If that were true then Foxconn, Hon Hai, and LG all would not have lsashed their own outlooks after Apple's earnings... Apple will never see 700 again, lucky if they see 550 again...

@ Herve, What's you r addess? I need to send you an economic text book... You keep buying gold and silver... Smart Japanese would be swapping Yen for USD while it is strong. Later on when the Yen finally weakens (or USD strengthens), people will be able to walk into a bank and convert the USD back into more Yen they had originally.

You, will have a bunch of gold coins that you overpaid for in a inflationary panic and will have to canvas coin shops to try and have them buy it back from you. Oh and when the USD is strong and Yen weak, gold prices will have already fallen and you will be selling at a net loss...

Its a fine line to walk, too much inflation will crush the Japanese. Too little or none, will keep Japan on its dangerous path that it has toed for nearly two decades. There has to be a change in philosophy and thinking from the top down... Acting on the same methods that Japan has been doing is clearly not working... Its only getting worse. Japan needs leaders who will buck tradition and begin thinking outside the box... Otherwise it'll just be more of the same and the tailspin will contuinue...

If the Japanese do not contribute to the turnaround, you all give Abe and the BOJ carte blanch in spending and adding to an already ridiculous amount of debt. Eventually, the credit agencies will downgrade Japan and it will cost more to borrow, which will only fuel the debt further. If Japanese go out and spend and we see some inflation, then Abe and the BOJ will back off in its infiltration of weakening the Yen and massive spending...

For those calling on inflation as a bad thing, think again! that mentality has caused Japan to be bone idle for the better part of 20 years! Somebody posted above that deflation is a good thing? Really, how so? When an economy is in deflation there is no end and it will spin out of control. There is no easy fix to reverse deflation, it just works itself out, normally by people buying goods. Prices in Japan are expensive but they are not going to get any lower. People need to spend their money. The tax revenue alone will assist in paying down the massive debt. It will also contribute to paying for Japan's abundant social programs. Right now, thre is an increase in aging workers set to leave the workforce and a dearth of younger workers coming in. So, how will less people be able to pay for more people without a tax increase, consumer spending, and other social reforms. In order to correct this, Japan will have to loosen immigration, allow women to actually work full time career positions because without it, the income tax revenue is just not there... Japan must rethink its old ways, people need to realize that prices are not going to get any lower, even while still expensive in comparison to other countries (case in point a small cup of Starbucks cost me less than $2 here in the States but in Japan its nearly double)... They have to go out and turn the economy around themselves because if not, Abe and the gov't will open the floodgates and if they open it too much for too lonog, Japan will enter hyperinflation, which would be detrimental.

The Yen is strong because foreign investors flock to it due to its security and stability. The Yen is stable because the Japanese own most of their staggering debt that runs 200% Japan's GDP. There is no way Japan will be able to weaken the Yen on its own and will have to pull off massive swaps. They have tried this a few times on their own since Fukishima and while it delivered a decrease it was merely temporary. Japan has failed to get a 1% inflation rate so it is extremely unlikely that they will achieve 2% while the Japanese sit it out and hoard the cash.

If the Yen is to weaken, then Japanese companies will start profiting more and share prices will increase. Right now, Japanese companies have lost their shirts due the repatriation of the Yen based on oversea's sales. If HJapan wasn't an exporting nation, then they would not have any trouble. However, while the Yen is/was at post WW2 highs, Japanese firms had an incredible opportunity for M&A action with foreign companies and set LT deals with SE Asia on resources. SOme took advantage some did not... The Japanese gov't has been cutting deals in Myanmar and forgiving its debt to Japan since it reopened. Having a trading partner with low manufacturing and an abundance of resources will reap major rewards later and the fact that these deals were all cut with a strong Yen fuels even more positivity down the road.

@Gaijin,

You do realize inflation is a healthy right? Every nation needs inflation... Sorry to burst your bubble but when you can show me a strong economy with zero inflation and I will think differently...

Lastly, My apologies for al the misspellings... I am writing this while at work and obviously didn't proof before submitting... My apologies...

@ daito... You are 100% correct on stating reforms need to happen... I wrote in my original piece about the effects of loosening immigration or better yet allowing women to work. I thinhk Japan right now as it stands is one of the worstr countries in teh developed world as far women in the workplace...

I know "change" never goes over well with Japan but for it to survive and stay relevant, its going to have to! All of its neighbors and key trading partners continue to get stronger but Japan remains idle...

There has to be reforms and major changes in thinking, policy, and culture to some degree... The BOJ and Gov't will not be able to do this alone, if at all... It needs to be a culmination of everything!

Ganbare Nippon!

Bottom line is if Japanese begin spending, the BOJ starts paying down debt, a slight inflation (lets say 2%) occurs, the economy will begin to grow... The Yen can weaken, helpijng exports and manufacturers. Somebody pointed out that imports would hurt due to a weakened yen and it will. However, Japan is not exactly known for importing goods because the Japanese are notoriously known to buy Japanese made goods only. The products they do import are natural resources and components to manufature goods for export (think electronics)... Smart companies were out there buying up supplies and signing LT contracts to do so while the Yen was strong. If they did not take advantage of a strong Yen, well that is their fault. They shouldn't have been asleep at the wheel.

I do not think the BOJ and Abe will be able to do it all themselves, but as a keynesian, I do think they should play a roll... The reality though is that it must come from the Japanese themselves. Go out and spend some money, prices are not going to get any lower than they have so why wait? A cuilmination of what I previously posted would help Japan and the Japanese to return to the top again... but they can't rely on the BOJ and gov't to do this alone... It must come from spending!

(Cont'd) Weakening the Yen will help this but everyone knows Japan is not able to weaken their currency alone and will need the help of others to sell it off as well. Japan has tried this a number of times since Fukishima and while they moved it temporarily, it did not last long. The problem is that too many foreign investors want to own teh yen because of Japan's self investment in samurai bonds... The fact that most of Japan's debt is owned by Japanese is a positive to outside investors trying to pile into the Yen, creating demand and making it stronger...

If japanese begin selling their yen and lets say buy up USD, than the Yen weakens, Dollar strengthens and the Japanese can convert back to yen when it is much weaker. A profitable stratedgy and a main reason why the Japanese should be doing this.

Inflation would be a good thing for Japan but I agree with some here stating that it could be detrimental as well... If inflation moves higher than as somebody posted, will raise prices on goods and raw materials to make goods. Thats why a number of Japanese companies have been investing heavily in other companies and countries while the Yen is in their favor. Look no further than Myanmar for this...

Having some form of inflation translates to a good thing becuas it shows growth in an overall economy... Too much puts a burden on people but we are talking about developed Japan, not Indonesia. Major differences because Japan is developed and Indonesia is not, therefore when prices go up, it impacts an Indonesian much more than a Japanese person. The bottom line is every country needs inflation, it just cannot exceed a level where it becomes aburden. A 2% target is not very much and frankly, is a stretch by Abe anyway, considering they can't even lock in a 1% target.

What Abe should do, is allow women to work more and reduce immigration policies, making it easier for foreigners to work in Japan. This would create more tax revenue for the BOJ to pay down Japan's enormous debt... Encouraging spending will help Japan in the long run... So instead of saving, perhaps Japanese should begin spending so the Japanese gov't can stop their spending and begin to pay down this debt...

Otherwise, Japan will have to look to foreign investment to buy Samurai bonds and they will want a lot more in interest than the Japanese who make up the bulk of buying now...