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Worst. Recovery. Ever: Japan Regular Wages Decline For 21 Consecutive Months
Japan's economic farce has gotten so bad it is becoming painful to even discuss it: first, every newspaper writes effusive, extended articles about how after nearly two years of consecutive declines in base pay praising Abenomics, and then the next month the "increase" is promptly revised lower in a footnote in some article which gets zero to no prominence, which however continues to reaffirm that Abenomics is an absolute, unmitigated disaster. Sure enough this is what happened today, when last month's bombastic "Japan Base Wages Rise for First Time in Nearly Two Years" can now be retracted and instead replaced with this: "regular pay slipped an annual 0.3 percent in February, falling for a 21st straight month after a 0.2 percent slip the previous month."
And what's worse, real wages, which take into account consumer inflation, dropped an annual 1.9 percent in February, down for a eighth straight month.
So much for forcing companies to boost worker wages (which many have agreed to, boosting monthly pay by 2000 Yen, or about 4 BigMacs). By now even the most clueless economist PhDs (i.e., all of them), should be aware that as long as there is no sustained wage growth, Japan can have all the inflation it wants - it simply means that even less consumption will take place. Add the imminent sales tax hike into the equation and suddenly the specter of all out recession, even as the Nikkei continues to soar solely due to currency collapse, becomes an all too real possibility.
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Their recovery might be weak, but i'd still rather be living in Japan than Afghanistan (GDP growth 15%) or Bhutan (10%)
Well, no risk, no reward.
GM blamed Bush
Japan just needs to add some capital controls to ensure those yen flow the right direction into the pockets of the workers.
How about none of the above. Door number 4 Monty.
Looks like an all out DEPRESSION.
it's StagCession.
Just long miserable, and now deeply engrained in the psyche of citizenry.
25 years of this, and add in the pressure of declining lifetime employment,
fewer companies hiring young people and fewer women having children so less demand.
it's just a vicious spiral.
so G-7 now stands for Grosswagedecline 7%.
Must suck to not be in that club ... says Vlad.
At least the Japanese now know what it feels like to be American. Your pay stays the same but the cost of everything goes way up.
the Japanese have known this for the last 20 years. we're only in year 5 in the US. its just getting much more severe there now. coming to you shortly.
Well, it's a good thing that there is "no inflation"....
/s
is that because of inflation or deflation? I lost count...
if it's deflation, that means that this is a non issue.
The poor wages are a result of the recent balmy 60 degree days this early in the spring. It's unusally warm for this time of year. \sarc
Please do not worry
On a separate note, a look at the SP500 over the last 15 trading days shows that between 4PM and 9:30AM (when cash markets are closed), the market was up roughly 75 points (4%). During market hours, the stock market was up 6 points (0.3%).
So, yes, the market is manipulated.
FED jams in all the POMO free money under cover of darkness, then during 'trading hours' all the HFT machines skim it all off. Of course FED knows nothing of this 'HFT' talk....nothing!
I'm sure this is somehow positive news for US indexes.....somehow.
Fukunomics.
Why does 'Recovery' seem to mean 'OK, we pulled the plug on the financial world again and stole all you peasants wealth, so now get back out there and rebuild it all for us so we can take it all for ourselves yet again.'
WSJ kicking ass and taking names..../sarc
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/03/31/from-getco-to-need-to-know-new...
Wheres Godzilla when you need him
April Fools!
Japanese Ministry of Propaganda says the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 % ! BLS must do better !
Replace "Japan" with "US" and the shit is all the same
When's a recovery not a recovery?
I knew a vet from the post ww2 japanese occupation. One pack of cigs would get you 20 small pieces of carved ivory. Total value about 800 bucks today.
A carton of cigs would get you a girl for the entire weekend.
Vaginas become monetized in tough times.
That's good for old, overweight white guys like me.
naked kleptocracy
This "recovery" is legalese. What is supposed to be rcovered? The economy? Your money? My money?
How about their recovery of consolidated power?
The "recovery" never was, is not, or ever shall be. The plan to remove wealth, and weapons from then serf has been if full effect. Make appropriate plans.
"Happiness is a tight Labor Market"