Posted in: Turn down the volume See in context
Is it just me, or is every Metro Manner notice depicting "round eyes" or gaijin performing the bad manner gestures? Surely Tokyo Metro is not suggesting that bad manners is a problem from non Japanese users?
I beg to differ when the typical "eraso" salaryman animal charges into the crowd boarding the train and then its elbows out to make room to look at his manga cartoon on his portable device. How about posters depicting that?
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Posted in: Abe says Japan cannot do without nuclear power See in context
If nuclear power is to be used for power generation it should never again be allowed in the hands of the financial controllers or businessmen..
The government should appoint a team of Japanese and International experts to form a governing panel that has the final say in all matters over and above the government vested interests when necessary.
Then the scientific committee with the government lease the energy created to the companies like TEPCO. They become distributors only. Safety and money is an impossible to justify mix.
There is also a safer form of nuclear power generation using Thorium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
Japan should be developing these. Of course with thorium you cannot build a nuclear weapon. But Japan doesn't have any do they ...???
We've got too much radiation All 'cos Tepco lost control A dark decision in the board-room Tepco leave those rods alone.
(Set to the music of another brick in the wall)
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Posted in: Japan Post's huge IPO approved by stock exchange See in context
If you want to trade stocks in a stock market then fine. Let them be zero coupon. (No dividends) Buy or sell thats it. If you want to get something for nothing why should you not risk everything?
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Posted in: Japan Post's huge IPO approved by stock exchange See in context
Seriously, any company that can afford to pay dividends to shareholders who do not contribute anything to the company is either (1) ripping off its employees, (2)ripping off its customers or (3)ripping off its suppliers most likely a combination of all three. I would call that inefficiency.
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Posted in: Japan Post's huge IPO approved by stock exchange See in context
Replace someone who is doing something with someone who does nothing, yeah right. Precious shareholders.
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Posted in: Japan Post's huge IPO approved by stock exchange See in context
When a nation works for several generations to build infrastructure, including healthcare, postal services, road and rail etc, NO government has the right to sell these national assets to the private sector.
The first thing the private sector does is to cut corners, fire excess staff put up prices and add their profit margin all to pay for the lovely shareholders who sit at home all day long and do NOTHING to add value or labour to the company. You only have to look at a balance sheet to see that Shareholders appear on the liability side to know what I'm talking about.
But then the politicians will be able to retire from the fees received from the investment bankers and underwriters who put the deal together.
It will do nothing for the average Japanese person.
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Posted in: BOJ ready to do whatever is needed to achieve 2% inflation target See in context
Abe will be remembered for causing stagflation. Forcing inflation without an equal or better amount of disposable income in the pockets of the general population not only prevents current purchases, it eliminates them forever as the consumer has to cut back on all bu essentials to survive. In deflation the purchases are just put on hold until the consumer feels its the right time to buy and prices aren't going much lower. Stagflation will kill what life there is left in the economy. The government is turning a blind eye to the random prices increases over and above the consumption tax rise. Some of which are weakly disguised such as 7 slices of cheese at the same price as 8 prior to the tax hike. We are not all stupid Abe!!! Corporations should not be allowed to control the tax benefits. GIve the average guy a tax holiday for a year or two to ensure they keep buying.
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Posted in: Do you ever worry that robots we create will become so powerful one day that they will destroy humans? Or does that only happen in movies? See in context
No problem, just teach the machines about sport. That will ensure they are totally dumbed down and will learn and continue to fight each other to be best. Way better than Asimov's laws of robotics. Look how well it works on the human race.
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Posted in: Japan PM tells Brazil 'Abenomics' working, time to do more business See in context
It seems to me that under cover of the consumption tax rise from 5% to 8% last April the government have turned a deliberate blind eye to other price rises.
Weeks before the tax rise supermarkets were making tax exclusive and tax inclusive prices on goods. The tax exclusive price was the big bold price which had risen to the previous tax in price. This was actually before the tax rise. Befoe the tax rise whoever heard of sliced cheese in packs of 7 slices? This is just one item where pre-tax packaging and planning by companies was undertaken to add their own piece of the action. The same price for 7 slices as previously for 8. Cheapo haircuts at the 1000 yen store. Previously 1050 yen tax in now its 1100 yen tax in.Why isn't anyone complaining about this mis-use of tax increase? of course rising prices will cause inflation which is what the government want the more the merrier. Finally someone realizes that inflation and GDP growth are inseperable.So we now are now trying to conjour up some inflation that only a generation ago Reagan and Thatcher were trying to eliminate. At least the Poly-trick-ians havent changed.
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Posted in: IMF says Japan must raise consumption tax to show fiscal commitment See in context
Japan needs to stop listening and bowing down to bankrupt nations who want Japan to follow suit. IMF and the World Bank have no authority here.
Fact 1. Japan has virtually none of its dept owned outside Japan. Fact 2. Japan still has the majority of the world's savings.
Don't raise taxes, just print money!!! Japan can do it because its their own dept. It will devalue the Yen and it will go back to 100.00 or beyond making exports cheaper. When in an economic slump do the opposite of western wisdom. Put money in the hands of the people who can spend it causing economic stimulus. Other nations have their debt owned mostly externally and cannot consider this option. Japan can and should.
Don't worry about being scalded by the Americans, do something for yourselves Japan!
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Posted in: Azumi worried about Japan's debt rating after EU downgrades See in context
Aqualung.
Currently the yield on the 30 year US long bond is around 2.91pct. 30 yr interest rate swap by comparison is around 2.64. That's a 27 basis point adjustment.
Swaps have potential maturities up to 50 years longer than the bond. Both have coupons and have credit and market risk built into the price just as long bonds do.
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Posted in: Azumi worried about Japan's debt rating after EU downgrades See in context
The longer end of the USD interest rate curve indicates that the "Prime Debt" US treasury bills are trading at a premium to interest rate swaps. This means that the credit worthiness of Uncle Sam is below that of a regular commercial banks for those longer periods 25years and beyond. Just copying the US model is therefore wrong because Uncle Sam is already bankrupt.
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Posted in: Azumi worried about Japan's debt rating after EU downgrades See in context
Japan doesn't have to sell any yen, just print more of it which will effectively devalue the Yen on world markets without being left with a pocket full of useless $ denominated bog paper!
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Posted in: Azumi worried about Japan's debt rating after EU downgrades See in context
Japan has to stop working with western economic models born in the Reagan Thatcher era. Japan has the biggest savings in the world, It does not need to borrow as other counties do so the credit rating thing is not so much an issue. If Japan does not make policies for Japan it will end up with the same problems as the US and Europe. The policy makers really don't understand the issues. In Japan or anywhere else for that matter.
For example what were the Europeans thinking when they allowed all nations in the EEC to write sovereign debt at the same rate as the prime members like Germany? They abolished the exchange rates and brought everyone to par. Something had to give. That something is giving now.
Japan has a problem with its exchange rate against other currencies because it is making Japanese goods uncompetitive. What Japan needs to do is "PRINT MONEY". Japan can afford to. In a depressed economy such as Japan over the past 20 years money should not be a scarcity it should be freely available. For so many years the world economists have thought inflation is the bogey-man. The crap that's taught in business schools around the world is the problem that coupled with central bank intervention and dabbling when they don't really know what they are doing.
Stop the vested interests in "Old Money" models and think for yourselves for a change.
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Posted in: TEPCO report faults operating manual; disputes hydrogen explosion See in context
Power utilities, like TEPCO should not be allowed to operate nuclear plants. They are driven by profit and greed to pay stockholder dividends. Let the governments run the plants with scientists and experts who are independent of the politicians and stockholders. Then allow the utility TEPCO in this case, to buy and resell the electricity from the government. And of course ZERO back-handers.
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Posted in: Gov't unveils series of measures to deal with strong yen See in context
@weedkila Sorry, I don't give central bankers that much credit. For sure they have no idea what they are doing. Are you aware of the scam when Salomon Bros stole the central bank's gold from under their noses? It was a scam product called a gold lease. Basically the whiz kids at Sally's invented a gold lease product which they told central bankers was for hedging purposes. Sally's took physical delivery of the gold and paid 1pct interest to the central bankers. It was over a year before the central bankers realized that they were never getting their gold back and it was all hushed up at the time. Lots of egg on face there.
Here is a tongue in cheek blog I used to write before but I haven't had time to update it. You might find something interesting or controversial there. http://vestedinterestsslayer.blogspot.com/
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Posted in: Gov't unveils series of measures to deal with strong yen See in context
@weedkila Since this is a forum about Japanese ongoing economic woes, I wont continue after this posting, but more than happy to continue in private if you request......
I agree with some of your points especially the mass brainwashing about interest. I have worked in finance for over 30 years. "Time-value-for-money" is a crock. It was invented centuries ago so the money changers in the middle east could realize some profit. We now have a massive global economy built on an ancient ruse. To my mind an investor should take all the risk of repayment and decide accordingly whether to invest or not.
Globally outlaw, yes outlaw dividends and premiums from stocks. If you don't work for the company and you want to get paid something then you take all the risk from a zero coupon stock. If a company can pay dividends it is either Raping its suppliers, over charging its customers or ripping off its employees, or most likely a combination of all 3. Capitalism does not automatically create a profit! The fact that we extract profits means the surpluses that should be plowed back into the system are being pocketed by the rich and greedy.
The whole world needs to move to something new and almost the same. I call it "steady State Capitalism" Capitalism without undue profit. It can be done. However it will take the peoples of this world to bring down their own currencies by printing home bank bills before this will happen. Think that is getting closer anyway. Old money beware!
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Posted in: Gov't unveils series of measures to deal with strong yen See in context
Fact: Japan owns 55% of the worlds savings. Fact: Japan owns almost all of its own debt. Japan is not restricted like other nations. It can afford to just print money under a controlled plan. In times such as these money should not be a scarce commodity, it should be plentiful. Printing more money and forcing the money supply to become bigger will make the yen weaker and promote exports and also inspire domestic demand to buy. Western nations have sold their debt to so many other countries that they do not have this option. Japan has great potential to lead the world in new green technologies but it needs the investment. That investment can come from within if the government open their eyes and stop believing in Reagan/Thatcher economics. Japan should also refuse flat out to raise consumption tax. The Euro zone and US are putting a lot of pressure on Japan to raise consumption tax to 10pct or even 15pct as early as next year. Don't those fools in the diet remember what happened when they raised it from 3 to 5 pct after the bubble burst? It send Japan into a 20 year deflationary cycle and the economy was in a better state then. My advice to the diet. Just say no! to Euro zone and America. Japan didn't get it wrong, they did!
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Posted in: We’ve seen the collapse of communism and now we’re seeing the collapse of capitalism. Surely, somewhere in between there must be a better middle road for us to travel. See in context
The normal middle of the road politics at 6 o'clock on the political face won't help either. We need to try something at 12 O'clock. Capitalism as we have been practicing it has a design error. Its called inflation. In order to make profits some one else has to make goods at a price below market value. What we need is STEADY STATE CAPITALISM where the insatiable desire for profit is taxed out of existence and companies and individuals are encouraged by tax credits to invest in their companies and the less fortunate and green projects and education and so on. Unfortunately it is unlikely to happen anywhere in the world while the "Old money" is still in control of the global system.
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The population of Gunma is 2 million, the 190 Rohingya are 0.009%.
Posted in: Rohingya woman helping community members to adapt to life in Japan
Posted in: Japan foreign minister stresses G7 unity toward peace in Ukraine
Rubio,will catch more hell carrying out Trump, illegal and crazy policies starting Tuesday
Posted in: Japanese foreign minister asks Rubio for exemption from Trump tariffs
Posted in: 51% of Japanese feel relations with South Korea are good: survey