Japan's Crisis Has Arrived? Japan Has First Trade Deficit in 32 Years!

The floodgates are creaking. If Japan needs foreign loans to float the government debt, the country is sunk. The other option is to destroy the value of the yen.

Will the Japanese public stand hyperinflation? If interest rates go to just 3% they would consume ALL of Japan's tax revenue. Even doubling the Sales Tax won't help.


Mish Shedlock reports in Japan Faces Moment of Truth:

Japan is in deep serious trouble the moment it enters a sustainable period of negative or neutral current account balances. If Japan becomes dependent on foreigners to finance rollovers on its debt either the Yen sinks or interest rates rise. Interest rates at a mere 3% would currently consume all of Japan's tax revenue.

Bloomberg reported; “Japan’s government said it will probably miss its goal of balancing the budget by 2020 even with its proposed doubling of the sales tax, underscoring the scale of the nation’s fiscal challenges.

The primary budget deficit, which excludes the cost of servicing debt, will be the equivalent of 3.1 percent of gross domestic product for the year through March 2021, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. Hours after the release, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reiterated his call for opposition lawmakers to engage in talks on boosting the sales levy.

‘To balance the budget, the rate needs to rise further.’”

What did I tell you the last time I wrote against an increase in Sales Tax? No matter how much the taxes go up, the government will always spend what it takes and, no matter how much it is raised, it will never be enough. History shows us that! When the first Sales Tax came in at 3% in the early 1980s they said that was going to fix the budget problems. Guess what? Surprise! It didn't.


Why didn't it? Because they spent the money!

The article above really goes into how stupid and into the outer limits of insanity the current government of Japan is by stating that there are some who think Japan should have a 25% Sales Tax.

Like I predicted, this prime minister, Noda something or other (no need to remember his name, he is a goner) will be gone this summer. Bank on it.

Instead of raising taxes, how about cutting spending?

Japanese Government: These People are Just Plain Nuts

We're F'ed. There, I said it. I used the "F" word.

What did I tell you? Exactly one week ago, I complained that those stupid idiots (I do have harsher words but this is a "family fun" blog) in the Japanese government threw away $50 some billion dollars trying to support the rising yen. In Japanese Central Bank Throws Away a Billion Dollars Again, I wrote:


This morning when I woke up I checked the financial markets, gold, silver and, of course, the dollar yen rate.


I was somewhat surprised to see the yen at ¥76.9-something to the US dollar. A hour or two later, the yen had dropped to its current ¥78.9 per US dollar. Obviously the Japanese Central Bank intervened and bought a bunch of dollars.

Fools. When will they ever learn? They keep throwing our hard earned tax money down the drain to stop the yen's rise, but it is all in vain as the yen's appreciation continues....


Why do these fools keep doing this? When will they ever learn that these interventions cannot and will not stop any long term trend? 


Gee, you think that, after decades of this sort of failed action repeated over and over that these analysts would figure it out? Gee... I guess they really go out on a limb and stick their necks out when they make statements like, "We don't believe today's action will explicity change the trend." 

What!? After decades of this sort of action and the inevitable failures of those actions, why is it  difficult to say straight out that "this Bank of Japan intervention will fail like all the others have before it."

They intervened in the yen at ¥76.9, spending some $50 billion dollars. The yen rose to over ¥80 to the US dollar. Now, today, exactly one week later, we're right back where we started. The yen today, as of 4:11 am August 11, 2011 Japan time, is at ¥76.81... 

Those fricking jerks in the government just threw away, for the umpteenth time, $50 billion dollars of hard earned tax payer money. That's your money and my money! God!@%>?! idiots! 


Now they are considering doing this again!? What the f*ck is wrong with these stupid people?


Yahoo reports:


Japanese policymakers voiced growing alarm on Tuesday as the yen scaled highs seen before last week's intervention and global stock markets crumbled under mounting fears of a new financial crisis. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda on several occasions repeated the mantra that he was watching markets closely as the dollar slid below 77 yen, under levels that spurred Tokyo to take action on August 4. He indicated that authorities would wait to see market reaction to U.S. Federal Reserve decisions later in the day (2:15 p.m. EDT) before deciding whether to act again.


What!? they are thinking about doing this again!? WTF!? God! I'm so pissed off about this I want to scream! How many times do they do this over and over and over and the same thing happens over and over until they finally learn? If history is any judge then we know that they never learn! 


The only thing that does make me happy this morning is the news that, finally, it looks like we will get rid of that moron prime minister Kan...


Reuters reports:


Prospects grew on Wednesday that Prime Minister Naoto Kan would resign this month, setting the stage for the selection of Japan's sixth leader in five years as the country struggles to rebuild from a massive tsunami, forge a new energy policy in the wake of a nuclear crisis and fix tattered state finances. With two key bills that Kan wants to make into law before he goes looking likely to be enacted before parliament's session ends on Aug. 31, Japanese media said Kan's Democratic Party was planning to vote as early as Aug. 28 to select a new leader. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who favours paying for bulging social security costs by raising the 5 percent sales tax, and like Kan sees reining in ballooning public debt as policy priority, is mooted as a leading contender.


Noda!? The guy who keeps recommending that Japan buy dollars to lower the value of the yen!? Are you kidding me? No. Can't be. I just can't believe that. I've died and gone to hell. I refuse to accept it.


Well, Noda or not, if we can judge from the past, the next guy who will torture the Japanese nation as prime minister will be just as much of a dolt as Kan. I think Noda will be even worse. Now that's hard to imagine!


Too bad Japan can't be like Belgium.. They haven't had a government in almost a year... Some people get all the luck!


Maybe I'll move to Belgium.