This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

The Curse Of Keynesian Dogma: Japan’s Lemmings March Toward The Cliff Chanting “Abenomics”

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by David Stockman of Contra Corner

The Curse Of Keynesian Dogma: Japan’s Lemmings March Toward The Cliff Chanting “Abenomics”

According to Takahiro Mitani, trashing your currency, destroying your bond market and gutting the real wages of domestic citizens is a sure fire ticket to economic success. Yes, that’s what the man says,

“I have no doubt that the economy is in a recovery trend if you look at the long run….”

After two years of hoopla and running the BOJ’s printing presses red hot, however, there is not a shred of evidence that Abenomics will lead to any such thing. In fact, after the recent markdown of Q3 GDP even deeper into negative territory, Japan’s real GDP is no higher now than it was the day Abenomics was launched in early 2013; and, in fact, is no higher than it was on the eve of the global financial crisis way back in 2007.

Historical Data Chart

In the meanwhile, the Yen has lost 40% of its value and teeters on the brink of an uncontrolled free fall. Currency depreciation, of course, is supposedly the heart of the primitive Keynesian cure on which Abenomics is predicated, but there is no evidence or honest economic logic to support the proposition that—–over any reasonable period of time—–a nation can become richer by making its people poorer.

Historical Data Chart

That’s especially true in the case at hand, which is to say, a Pacific archipelago of barren rocks. Japan imports virtually 100% of every BTU and every ton of metals and other raw materials consumed by its advanced $5 trillion industrial economy.

Yet thanks to the mad money printer who Prime Minister Abe seconded to the BOJ, Hiroki Kuroda, import prices are up by a staggering 30% since 2012. Even with oil prices now collapsing, the yen price of crude oil imports is still higher than it was two years back. Not surprisingly, input costs for Japan’s legions of small businesses have soared, and the cost of living faced by its legendary salary men has risen far faster than wages.

Historical Data Chart

Accordingly, domestic businesses that supply the home market—and that is the overwhelming share of Japan’s output—are being driven to the wall, bankruptcies are at record highs and the real incomes of Japan’s households have now shrunk for 16 consecutive months and are down by 6% compared to 2 years ago. And the purpose of all this punishment?

Well, its something right out of the Keynesian “Sesame Street”. We are talking here about our friend the letter “J” that was scribbled on a napkin in Cambridge MA more than a half-century ago. That is to say, when you trash your currency your trade balance is supposed to get worse for a while, and then it gets all better. Hence, the “J-curve”.

Needless to say, its not working for Japan. The fact is, Japan is an old age colony that is in debt up to the eyeballs of what will soon be  a retirement population larger than its work force. So it desperately needs to run a trade balance—and better still, a surplus—-with the rest of the world in order to accumulate acorns for its long time future as an economic rest home.

As shown below, however, Abenomics has had the very opposite effect. Japan’s normal moderate surplus since its 1990 crisis has plunged into deep red ink since the onset of Abenomics. Stated differently, Seasame Street economics has been an unmitigated disaster for Japan.

Historical Data Chart

The idea of the J-Curve and getting richer by getting poorer is nonsense anyway. But when you apply this misbegotten Keynesian dogma to a unique economy that is essentially a one-of-a-kind materials conversion machine, which transforms raw resources from the rest of the planet into advanced industrial, consumer and technology goods, you are essentially committing economic hari kari.

Even before taking into account the potential for trade and currency retaliation owing to this blatant beggar-the-neighbor policy, Japan will never get off the bottom of its J-Curve because is inherently a big importer. And unlike Germany, for example, where exports amount  to 40% of GDP, Japan’s exports now average less than 12%.

So in terms of the Keynesian preoccupation with “flow” (that is, current period income and outgo), here is what you have on the trade front. Exports have risen barely 18% in yen terms and not at all in physical quantity. By contrast, imports are up 35% in yen terms—-not because Japan Inc is thriving, but because the BOJ has flooded the world with yen that nobody wants.

Historical Data Chart

Historical Data Chart

But the “nobody wants” part is the heart of the matter. Keynesian economic models have no balance sheet concept, and therefore its high priests roam the world preaching the same one-size-saves-all dogma to governmental congregations, whether they are flush with cash or are buried in debt. But that is just plain stupid when it comes to today’s monumental debtors.

The latter desperately need to reduce their consumption and increase their savings—–especially if they are rapidly getting old demographically and need to build their individual and collective nest eggs. Needless to say, the BOJ’s vicious assault on savers makes the Fed look like a model of decorum.

Forget the overnight rate, which is ZIRP on most of the planet. In Japan, 10-year money on the supposed risk-free JGB is now exactly 0.398%. Consequently, there is not a single sentient buyer for Japan’s monumental government debt left anywhere in the known universe. Germans and Martians, who count their wealth in something other than yen, are most certainly not going to buy bonds denominated in a vanishing exchange rate.

The same story holds domestically. The long suffering Japanese banks are getting out of government bonds, and not just because the MOF and BOJ are telling them to. Indeed, along with the life insurance companies, other institutional investors and even the proverbial Mrs. Watanabe of the household sector, they are getting out of JGBs because Kuroda and Abe are making them a proposition they can’t refuse. Namely, these madmen through the open market desk at the BOJ are “bid” any and all bonds on offer; and at nose-bleed prices (that is, the inverse of the 0.398% yield) that vastly exceed the true economic value of debt that one day the Japanese government must and will default on.

In other words, blindly following the Keynesian dogma that has been impressed upon them by the IMF economists, the G-7 and G-20 apparatchiks, and the parade of itinerant snake oil salesman like Krugman, Bernanke, and Larry Summers, the BOJ has become some kind of infernal vacuum cleaner that intends to suck-up every last bond the bankrupt Japanese government can issue. And as a reminder, that is  already a financial Mt. Fuji and then some.

Historical Data Chart

Needless to say, bidding the entire world out of its JGBs creates two gargantuan problems. In the case of domestic investors, what do they do with the cash? Well, in the paradigm of Keynesian central bankers the world over—they, perforce, put it in “risk assets”.

And that brings us back to Mr.Takahiro Mitani——the man with utmost confidence that Japan’s economic future is bright and the nominal head of Japan’s giant $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF). But let’s state that more plainly. Mitani is the utterly naïve and clueless long-time BOJ-GPIF financial bureaucrat who has been ordered by Abe to flush the GPIF of upwards of $400 billion of government bonds which it has held for years, and upon which it has earned virtually nothing, in favor of buying the Japanese stock market and a global equity basket, too.

Stated differently, these Keynesian preachers like Summers and Krugman, who have the government of Japan in their thrall, are downright cruel and malevolent. One of the few things that can keep Japan’s projected 35 million retirees from resort to cat food someday is their $1.4 trillion GPIF nest egg.

But under the influence of these financial terrorists—–and there is no other way to describe them—– the government of Japan has ordered that a huge chunk of that nest egg be put four-square in harm’s way. That is, be invested at the tippy top of the greatest stock market bubble the world has every seen.

Upwards of 40% of the fund is to go into equities and other alternative assets and two-thirds of that is earmarked for Japanese equities. So it is no wonder Mr. Mitani is whistling a happy tune about Abenomics. He has no choice. After all, he has been “invited” to put hundreds of billions into the Japanese stock market after it has doubled in response to an economic program that amounts to a suicide mission.

Japan Stock Market (NIKKEI 225)

This is where Keynesian dogma has taken Japan—–it has turned its vaunted elite bureaucracy and historic governing class into a pathetic band of financial lemmings. In particular, the GPIF desperately needs to earn a robust return now before the real demographic tsunami hits.  That is, before its current 80 million strong work force shrinks to just 40 million over the next 50 years, while its army of retirees swells from 25% to more than 40% of its population over the period.

But its central bank is now all-in for Keynesian money printing ,and has thereby vaporized any yield at all in the fixed income market; and has also knowingly or not, invited all the fast money punters of Wall Street, London and the rest of the world to front-run an insane Tokyo stock market bubble—–confident that at the first sign of trouble they can drop their inflated shares on the retirement population of Japan.

Calling that scenario a reverse Pearl Harbor would be only a mild resort to metaphor. Yet “Pearl Harbor” is the right metaphor because it is forever connected with the brutal war which raged across the length and breadth of East Asia thereafter.

This time it will be a currency war, but no less devastating for all parties involved. The yen FX rate is currently in a temporary holding pattern around 120, but just wait for the up-coming snap election and the likelihood that the Japanese people will follow its lemming leaders toward the terrible cliff of Abenomics.

But upon news of Prime Minister Abe’s electoral “mandate” to plow full stream ahead, the Yen could plunge through 120 in an instant, and be well on its way to 140 and not so far down the road to 200. But as George H.W Bush said in another context—- and not the one which brought him to the feet of Prime Minister Miyazawa in 1992—–the upcoming cliff dive of the Japanese yen “cannot stand”. It will amount to a thundering frontal assault on the export mercantilism on which the entire bloated edifice of China and the rest of East Asia is built.

One thing is certain about the ensuing “race to the bottom”. Japan’s retirement colony will end up with the hindmost.

And they will surely burn professors Krugman and Summers in effigy—-even if driftwood is the only fuel they have left.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:39 | 5548794 MisterX
MisterX's picture

it is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated

http://www.philiacband.com/propaganda.html

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:46 | 5548808 Ahoy Polloi
Ahoy Polloi's picture

Klugman Locks!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:08 | 5548850 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Another nation of hypnotised lemmings lacking critical thought processes mindlessly marching over the cliff...

Reft... reft... reft-light-reft...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:18 | 5548863 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Great piece.  Nails the jello to the wall on the stupidity of printing with the current export/import and natural resources disasters.

I agree with Abe on one and only one thing.  Those pension funds are better invested in almost anything outside of Japan.

@zero  youah shopanese ees berry gute!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:26 | 5549054 knukles
knukles's picture

When somebody in power takes Krugman seriously, you know it's the End of Days.
Where's Nibiru when we need it?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:50 | 5549110 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Krugman would look quite natural wearing one of those ugly Christmas pajama suits.

Paging Wild Bill 7...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:49 | 5549218 philipat
philipat's picture

Why only in effigy? When TSHTF in The US I'm sure "The folks" would be happy to chip in towards the cost of a one-way ticket to Tokyo for Krugman.

Tue, 12/16/2014 - 12:22 | 5558544 draego
draego's picture

Properly cooked, economists are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 11:43 | 5550217 Realname
Realname's picture

The Japanese, US, and EU economies are going the way of grandpas auto-mobile via Long Duk Dong... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HO57oMHTcw

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:15 | 5549160 SamThomas
SamThomas's picture

Krugman is Kuroda's Rasputin.

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 09:00 | 5549938 weburke
weburke's picture

their only hope is that goldman sacs is running their investment of equities, and that goldman has been given orders to put it in stocks -ignoring the 40% rule and putting them not in japan stocks- and picking the winners that will be winners by design.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:44 | 5548942 mrpxsytin
mrpxsytin's picture

I understand your point, however, unfortunately, due to severe malnutrition from pre-conception through to 'adulthood', many of these uneducated people are suffering from mental retardation, which prevents them from learning. They can learn to use an EBT card and to vote Democrat, but that's really pushing the limits of their cretinous neural framework. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:43 | 5548802 q99x2
q99x2's picture

This author sure seems cranky.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:43 | 5548804 highly debtful
highly debtful's picture

The picture of Krugman with the cat reminds me of dr Evil. In a less funny version, that is.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:59 | 5548835 cossack55
cossack55's picture

They seem to share the same concept of money...

"We will hold the world ransom for $1 million......."

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:48 | 5548959 Make_Mine_A_Double
Make_Mine_A_Double's picture

Middle aged men with cats is sure fire sign of latent homosexuality.

 

 

Edit: I do not a have a cat however I enjoy pussy.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:24 | 5549051 I need Another Beer
I need Another Beer's picture

Cats are a joy to shoot

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:56 | 5549072 knukles
knukles's picture

My lawyer and spiritual adviser (I sometimes like to think of our relationship as intensely symbiotic similar to that of Hunter Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta, but on a more sane level) thinks there's something way the fucked up with him as well, felt that photo be be a confirmation of his suspicions and to this day, remains deeply disturbed by what he feels to be an essentially graven image which if displayed in the Vatican would be categorized as a Papal Sin.  Or Somebody's Nitwit Offspring (his words).

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:45 | 5549098 GoldSilverBitcoinBug
GoldSilverBitcoinBug's picture

Or a man who got scewed by his wife after a divorce...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:51 | 5548813 debtor of last ...
debtor of last resort's picture

Turn that Krugman-nobel into a Hello Kitty dildo and the circle of convenience is completed.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:53 | 5548825 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

In Japan, 10-year money on the supposed risk-free JGB is now exactly 0.398%

And the Yen can lose 5% a week wiping out more than the entire interest on the 10 year bond. Who will hold any Japanese bonds?  Why has the Japanese bond market not collapsed yet?  Will it collapse next week? Or the next month?

There is no way out for Japan save collapse. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:55 | 5548827 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

Who will hold any Japanese bonds?  Why has the Japanese bond market not collapsed yet?

did you even bother to read the article?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:06 | 5548839 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

The BOJ cannot buy all the Japanese bonds that people want to sell indefinitely.  Sooner or later, the BOJ runs out of money.  Then the bond market collapses.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:15 | 5548858 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

They will own every JGB before they run out of ink and electrons...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:35 | 5549077 knukles
knukles's picture

The BoJ can print more money than people have bonds.  Kinda. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:15 | 5549159 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

They can but the effect will be the same as defaulting

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:19 | 5548884 Al Huxley
Al Huxley's picture

No, the BOJ can buy bonds until the bankers say they can't - probably forever as long as they don't run out of lube.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:21 | 5548886 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Won't happen.  They are going to cancel the debt, maybe in stages of 20-25%.

No one has done anything quite this nuts in a long time.

Got popcorn?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:33 | 5549187 knukles
knukles's picture

I'm not sure sure about that "done nothing quite this nuts in a long time". 
Seems like just another small step along the "Yellow Brick Road of Bat Shit Insanity"

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:47 | 5549215 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

It's all good knuks.

Soon they will have whole new lines of glow in the dark robots, vibrators, sushi, you name it.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:10 | 5548857 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Obviously not;)

Looks like a pure write off of all the debt coming soon.

Do you see anything else they might be up to, buzz?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:28 | 5548898 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

I did dead the article and I still don't get how interest rates on the thirty are at under one half of one percent.

I am not listening to yen cross anymore because he was short the dollar at 90 and has said he remains short the dollar even tho the yen has been crushed.

I am interested in currency trading now though.  I'm going to wait until the US thirty year hits one half of one percent first tho.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:35 | 5548914 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

The Bank of Japan is printing like a banshee and hitting the ask on all the Jap bonds offered.

They are also probably the only aggressive bidders on the S&P 500 now.

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 05:31 | 5549822 Augustus
Augustus's picture

disabledvet,

The idea is that someone with an unlimited supply of cash comes to the auction and buys everything.  There is no credit limit restriction on the credit card when that buyer owns the printing press.  The remarkable thing, and what makes it difficult to understand, is that it has gone on for so long.  As others note, what reasoning causes anyone to buy or hold the bonds a zero return?  The buying by the BOJ simply increases the supply of Yen and depreciates the value, making the low rates even more of a loser.

The reason for the article is to point out that there is no logical reason for this situation to persist. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:45 | 5548949 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

Of the $10+ trillion in JGB's

 

BOJ 20%

banks 28%

insurance companies 19%

pensions 9%

foreign investors 8.5%

the remaining 15.5% is held by private individuals and businesses

 

It looks like their entire financial system will collapse and some very stupid foreign investors will lose over $850 billion

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:55 | 5548826 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

That is one heck of a tsunami that is coming.
By the end of it the Japanese will be begging the US to drop another atomic bomb on them and put them outof their misery.
And to think that 30 years ago Japan was lauded to such a point that parents were encouraged to get their children to learn Japanese.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:10 | 5548849 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

And to think that now parents are urging their children to learn Cantonese.

I would urge my children to study Greek and Latin as well as English.

Fuck it if an overloaded economy goes quiet: All the better to learn how to think, live and create rather than how to make and spend money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2YU1k8Nmms

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:42 | 5548941 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

You are absolutely correct. Learning Greek and Latin is an education in itself. Having studied both I can attest to the fact that they open up a whole new level of thinking.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:47 | 5548955 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

Mandarin, not Cantonese.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:32 | 5549188 knukles
knukles's picture

Like the little ornages in cans that were made to go into Jello?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:09 | 5548856 SpanishInquisition
SpanishInquisition's picture

It will be like The Mouse That Roared. They'll start a war in order to get a Marshall Plan.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:22 | 5548890 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

Don't remind me - had to go through all the bullshit six-sigma and japanese quality courses that attempted to teach people fucking common sense. Enough to make a person puke.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:01 | 5548840 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

Japan doesn't have any real power, the power lies in Europe and America. 

And where do the energy and commodities come from?

mostly out of third world countries, former colonies.

The west doesn't want to waste time occupying those countries and it's more profitable to place dicators to run the slaves over there but never forget who rules it all.

Oil is a good example.

But what isn't? Food! Look at friday's grain prices and look at oil.

Japan sold out and China is taking it's place amongst allies, and the EU and US don't want to many allies because it need enemies more so they can strip them with a reason.

And even in a total crash, the EU and US will stay on top and people should realize that. No way in hell that a powerhouse will just give that away.

And when we're broke, that just means we'll just pay less for their goods. And that translates into deflation over here and inflation over there. And that's why currencie plays are so important, it's what controls everything and can push anybody on his knees.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:29 | 5548904 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

reply to Sudden Debt:

Just like I said: Greek, Latin and English. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:04 | 5548847 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

It all over except for the Chinese occupation.

An American, not US subject.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:18 | 5548881 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

They will seize the San Diego beachhead first.

My guess is that the Chinese soldiers will arrive by ship packed inside thousands of shipping containers...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:07 | 5548852 Squid Viscous
Squid Viscous's picture

Japan is following the J curve indeed: Krugman, Yellen, Summers, Bernanke... all J's

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:16 | 5548869 GreatUncle
GreatUncle's picture

2 points on Japan and QE.

Starting to join up some dots on Japans economy and why it has no way out. As a population becomes ever older it requires those not yet retired to have an asset. This asset is a necessity if you want consumptive growth because an asset allows borrowing to then consume. Now got an ugly feelin g if anythign the total asset value of the population especially the elderly is falling rapid effectively wiping out the middle class spenders and increasing the poorest. To turn it around those with no asset class need to be able to obtain it so ensuring the future consumption.

Now as the USA stops its QE Japan and others start up to replace that which the global reserve currency will not do, now China has also been using massive QE stimulus also. Put the total QE together globally and it can be done because everything is measured in dollars we appear to need to crerate more than the total global GDP each year to stand still. Now that is fucking scary, not any particular country all of them embarking on this and I really cannot see a way out of that. If any one nation stops somebody else has to pick up the slack. Then when all the central banks stop as the USA exported inflation for decades the pendulum will likely swing in reverse exporting deflation now on a massive scale.

Those two points in a global context are massive and putting your head in the sand won't halt it. For the last 5 years we have listended to the bullshit so why is there such massive QE on a global scale now? Then what happens if the total QE value globally does not enter the system to keep the illusion of growth going? The middle class is wiped out becoming part of the poor class and then you only have a totalitarian states with masters and slaves.

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 00:00 | 5549540 SHRAGS
SHRAGS's picture

Your last sentence sums up the situation perfectly, everything is going according to plan.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:19 | 5548876 Lapri
Lapri's picture

Uh... a baseball player (Hiroki Kuroda) is the governor of Bank of Japan?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:37 | 5548919 r00t61
r00t61's picture

I think the writer meant Haruhiko Kuroda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhiko_Kuroda).

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:19 | 5548877 Al Huxley
Al Huxley's picture

Dammit, Friday close was probably the time to short gold and go long the Nikkei.  I mean, the country's so obviously fucked in every possible way imaginable - that has to be the trigger to spark the santa rally.  I bet the Nikkei gains 4% and the DOW recovers all of last weeks losses on Monday.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:25 | 5548894 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

A man with a plan.

InsanityRus. (TM)

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:47 | 5548960 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

How twisted we have all become when we try to anticipate and make money from market movements based on sheer idiocy and manipulation.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:48 | 5548965 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

Any NIKKEI gains are lost in fX. Look at EWJ and NKY charts since the Kuroda bomb

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 05:41 | 5549825 Augustus
Augustus's picture

Yes, the Nikkei is reflecting the same situation as the Zimbabwe stock market did.  Market index exploded higher but the whole thing was worthless when investor tried to convert those "gains" into something else.

 

I have not figured out how to put on a trade such as the Brit Contract for Difference.  I have little doubt that the index average will be much higher in two years but can it appreciate faster than the Yen plunges?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:26 | 5548896 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

Burn Krugman in effigy. Burn him for real would be better, but he'll probably somehow get another nobel peace prize like Barry 'we droned some innocents' Obama did. Fuck is shit messed up.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:37 | 5548916 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

Whatever Dexter, but leave his cat alone. Cats are the best.

PRIZE COMPETITION: WHAT IS THE NAME OF KRUGMAN'S CAT?

My guess? "Mr. Satie".

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:41 | 5548929 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

I'm thinkin 'shitrock', or Sgt. Meowenstein maybe

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:39 | 5549090 knukles
Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:54 | 5549123 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

 And if you are on HuffPo you fuck Areola Huffington which is outright bestiality. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:01 | 5549134 knukles
knukles's picture

Oh yes, Areola is quite the masterpiece of womanhood.

Talking about Areola;
http://www.007b.com/nipple_gallery.php

Her mother must have been a very creative, humorous woman

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:04 | 5549209 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

You have to love:  Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

Oh, THAT is what the problem is.  Silly me.  That is hilarious Knukles.;-)  I could not have made that one up.  I am going to go ask tell the wife that I think she may have this problem just to see what she says/does.  That is a classic Knukles.  I will let you know that goes. 

Edit:  That took about about one second to get an answer for.  "NO, I don't have that".  Women seem to have terrible trouble with all aspects of their vagina's.  It is just a litany of neverending complaints about droken down vaginas.  It is not like I can break out some wrenches and start fixing on it.  Then she asked why I wanted to know and where I learned and I conveniently forgot right away.  Oh well, I was funny to see the look on her face when I asked.  Thanks for the entertainment knukles.  I got more than one good laugh out of your effort.  

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:12 | 5549272 knukles
knukles's picture

You are a brave man.  If I were to ask Mrs K about that, she'd probably suggest I need rectal re-hydration. 

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 01:01 | 5549629 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

:-)  I am going to go check to see if mine still has a vagina.   

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:28 | 5548899 Dre4dwolf
Dre4dwolf's picture

Japan is going to be a Chinese colony in 20 years.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:38 | 5548920 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Prison colony maybe.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:49 | 5549107 GoldSilverBitcoinBug
GoldSilverBitcoinBug's picture

Better than being an USA vassal state at least Chinese are Asian. Perfect opportunity to return to Asian roots.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:33 | 5548912 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

The big strength of the Japanese has been their devotion to family. When this whole Ponzi collapses, and the young, well-off Japanese lose their shirts along with their parents who lose their pensions, maybe they will suddenly realize that what they "lost" was nothing more than the vapors of wealth, and that they STILL have those families, and they need each other more than ever.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:50 | 5548964 mrpxsytin
mrpxsytin's picture

One thing is certain, the Japanese will not starve. A third of their rice growing land sits fallow due to government subsidies paying people not to grow rice. Furthermore, a huge amount of the active growing land is significantly underutilised: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21590947-government-...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:50 | 5548971 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

They also have plenty of radioactive fish. Will they be able to afford fuel for their fishing boats?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:06 | 5549016 mrpxsytin
mrpxsytin's picture

Point me to one scientific article that has clearly defined the minimum lethal dose of radiation. 

Population of Hiroshima at 1942: 419k

Population of Hiroshima at present: 1.154million

Go back to sleep moron.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:10 | 5549026 mrpxsytin
mrpxsytin's picture

This might be a bit much for you to take but have a read:

The Linear No-Threshold (LNT) Radiation Dose Hypothesis

 

In his 1976 book, A Scientist at the White House, George Kistiakowsky, President Eisenhower's Science Advisor, told what he wrote in his diary in 1960 on being exposed to the idea by the Federal Radiation Council:

It is a rather appalling document which takes 140 pages to state the simple fact that since we know virtually nothing about the dangers of low-intensity radiation, we might as well agree that the average population dose from man-made radiation should be no greater than that which the population already receives from natural causes; and that any individual in that population shouldn't be exposed to more than three times that amount, the latter figure being, of course, totally arbitrary.  

Later in the book, Kistiakowsky, who was a nuclear expert and veteran of the Manhattan Project, wrote: "...A linear relation between dose and effect... I still believe is entirely unnecessary for the definition of the current radiation guidelines, since they are pulled out of thin air without any knowledge on which to base them."

Sixty-three years of research on radiation effects have gone by, and Kistiakowsky's critique still holds. The Linear No-Threshold (LNT) Radiation Dose Hypothesis, which surreally influences every regulation and public fear about nuclear power, is based on no knowledge whatever.

At stake is the hundreds of billions spent on meaningless levels of "safety" around nuclear power plants and waste storage, the projected costs of next-generation nuclear plant designs to reduce greenhouse gases worldwide, and the extremely harmful episodes of public panic that accompany rare radiation-release events like Fukushima and Chernobyl. (No birth defects whatever were caused by Chernobyl, but fear of them led to 100,000 panic abortions in the Soviet Union and Europe. What people remember about Fukushima is that nuclear opponents predicted that hundreds or thousands would die or become ill from the radiation. In fact nobody died, nobody became ill, and nobody is expected to.)

The "Linear" part of the LNT is true and well documented. Based on long-term studies of survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan and of nuclear industry workers, the incidence of eventual cancer increases with increasing exposure to radiation at levels above 100 millisieverts/year. The effect is linear. Below 100 millisieverts/year, however, no increased cancer incidence has been detected, either because it doesn't exist or because the numbers are so low that any signal gets lost in the epidemiological noise.

We all die. Nearly a half of us die of cancer (38% of females, 45% of males). If the "No-Threshold" part of the LNT is taken seriously, and an exposed population experiences as much as a 0.5% increase in cancer risk, it simply can not be detected. The LNT operates on the unprovable assumption that the cancer deaths exist, even if the increase is too small to detect, and that therefore "no level of radiation is safe" and every extra millisievert is a public health hazard.

Some evidence against the "No-Threshold" hypothesis draws on studies of background radiation. In the US we are all exposed to 6.2 millisieverts a year on average, but if varies regionally. New England has lower background radiation, Colorado is much higher, yet cancer rates in New England are higher than in Colorado—an inverse effect. Some places in the world such as Ramsar, Iran, have a tenfold higher background radiation, but no higher cancer rates have been discovered there. These results suggest that there is indeed a Threshold below which radiation is not harmful.

Furthermore, recent research at the cell level shows a number of mechanisms for repair of damaged DNA and for ejection of damaged cells up to significant radiation levels. This is not surprising given that life evolved amid high radiation and other threats to DNA. The DNA repair mechanisms that have existed in yeast for 800 million years are also present in humans.

The actual threat of low-dose radiation to humans is so low that the LNT hypothesis can neither be proven true nor proven false, yet it continues to dominate and misguide policies concerning radiation exposure, making them grotesquely conservative and expensive. Once the LNT is explicitly discarded, we can move on to regulations that reflect only discernible, measurable medical effects, and that respond mainly to the much larger considerations of whole-system benefits and harms.

The most crucial decisions about nuclear power are at the category level of world urban prosperity and climate change, not imaginary cancers per millisievert.

http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-retirement

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:36 | 5549190 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

38% of females and 45% of males die of cancer. 100 years ago, 2% of us died of cancer. But there is no evidence radiation is dangerous. Gotcha.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:09 | 5549259 Blankenstein
Blankenstein's picture

So what did people die from 100 years ago?  And what was the life expectancy?

 

http://demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html

year  M   F

1914  52  56.8

2012  76.4  81.2

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/08/us-life-expectancy-...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:50 | 5549337 Aussiekiwi
Aussiekiwi's picture

Disease, knife in the back...maybe?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 22:31 | 5549372 mrpxsytin
mrpxsytin's picture

See Blankenstein's comment. I'll add three more points to that:

1. How available were cancer detection/screening tests and machines in 1900? 

2. What % of the population could afford to get checked for cancer in 1900?

3. How many people in 1900 may have had early stages of cancer and simply died from something else and the cancer was left undected?

 

Sorry to tell you, but we have to die of something. If we live longer, because we've worked out how to dodge the myriad causes of death that took out those living in 1900, then something still has to cause us to die now. If we ever cure cancer, then something else will kill us. Do we have to blame that on radiation too? 

Maybe we should turn off the sun...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 23:06 | 5549431 Gaius Frakkin' ...
Gaius Frakkin' Baltar's picture

Why don't you shut the fuck up. Go buy some nuclear wasteland, build your dream home, and leave us in peace.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:49 | 5549332 Aussiekiwi
Aussiekiwi's picture

LOL, I think when that happens there will be a desperate inter-generational fight  for the crumbs

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:36 | 5548918 yogibear
yogibear's picture

"The picture of Krugman with the cat reminds me of dr Evil. In a less funny version, that is."

Prior to Dr Evil there was this guy. Probably another Krugman idol besides Keynes.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/05/23C0A41B00000578-0-image-m-32_...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:43 | 5548936 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

BRAVO YOGIBEAR !!! All these Zerohedgers who didn't recognize Goldfinger and his white Persian cat. BRAVO !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy_PJODH3p0

RIP Donald Pleasance

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:53 | 5548976 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

Auric Goldfinger

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:39 | 5548926 IPURDOM75
IPURDOM75's picture

Stockman s got some good punclines

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:48 | 5548957 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

My nine year old daughter is playing with a little neighbor girl who happens to be Japanese.  They are building gingerbread houses together which I am not much interested in doing.  I commonly do give out silver coins to children.  I figured well, what the fuck, I'll frame one up in a 2X2.  It's not like I don't have silver dimes around.  I found a nice AU 1964D and made into a 2x2 and wrote the ASW on the top.  It is .0723 ASW.  I give it to the little girl and told her that she needs to keep that and never take it out of it's.  She thought that was pretty cool and thanked me.  I did not give any lecture or thrilling speech.  

My hope is that she won't lose it before she gets home because she will for sure show her parents.  Not too many kids come home with some silver in their pockets but it is very common if they hae visited me.  I think the message was sent with a mintage of 1,357,517180 for the 1964D Roosevelt dime.  It's not that I like Roosevelt at all but it was the enormous mintage number.  They minted almost another billion of 1964s out of Philly.  Those are astonishing mintage numbers.  That was done for a reason.

Looking back, I think we need to address this fact.  They were going to make damned good and sure you had a chance to own some and you do.  They make damned fine gifts for whatever holiday you want to celebrate.  I think giving them to children is the best thing to do because not only does it make the parents interested but perhaps the children too when they get a little older.  What is money?  I am convinced that it was done on purpose and then you the 1964 silver dollar

Buy your kids and grandkids some silver coins.  This is one way we can fight back and at least one of those children, when they get older, will start asking questions.  Mine will for sure.      

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:53 | 5548977 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

The young are given so much trash that gold and silver, good advice and leading by good example is all that is truly left and of value.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:55 | 5548985 Goldilocks
Goldilocks's picture

The Cult - Black Angel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPwRmqwp_Qo (5:26)

The Cult - Sweet Soul Sister
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNobN73F2JY (3:55)

The Cult - Painted On My Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Vu-EeYq_w (3:43)

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:28 | 5549058 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

Japan created an award (Deming) for the guy who saved their manufacturing industry.

I doubt if they will for Krugman.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:29 | 5549306 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Japanese have a blowfish or fugu ready for Krugman and the rest of Federal Reserve members after their done destroying japan with their stupid printing experiment.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:55 | 5549124 GoldSilverBitcoinBug
GoldSilverBitcoinBug's picture

Wait for that oil price goes up to 80$, with a yen at 140...

When it's that Tokyo Olympic Games ? in 2020 ? Greece collapsed just after the Olympic Games, maybe Japan will do that just after.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:18 | 5549164 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Sounds similar to a mentally challenged Special Olympic event..

;P

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:30 | 5549182 GoldSilverBitcoinBug
GoldSilverBitcoinBug's picture

Paralympics ? Fukulympics ?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:59 | 5549133 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Meow.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 20:36 | 5549194 Upset Your Worries
Upset Your Worries's picture

"By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more."

Camus

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:03 | 5549251 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

I so want to airmail him somebodies pet rock.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 21:31 | 5549307 BeerMe
BeerMe's picture

They deserve a (I'd say long slow, but rather it be tomorrow) death believing in this shit.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 22:58 | 5549426 honestann
honestann's picture

And when the yen is vaporized, the new Japanese currency will be...

-----

the Krugman?

or the Keynes?

-----

Is there something about the name Abe... that makes a country fight uncivil "Civil wars"?

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 03:01 | 5549714 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

+1 bushpilot woman.  Well, at least there is one around to flirt with. She can probably help Knukels and I figure about vaginapyschofuckupalotthisifilis diesase.  I see that there can br two reaons for this disease.  The first being that the man is an asshole which is entirely possible.(it was probably her fault though)  The second reason being that the aforementioned woman in question has already had two children with that same asshole of a male and does not want to have any more of the critters.  I would suggest that this not a disease.   

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 23:19 | 5549464 Fuku Ben
Fuku Ben's picture

Keynesian Khaos headed up by Pussies Galore

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 00:50 | 5549620 theyjustcantstop
theyjustcantstop's picture

japan will have 2 choices in a few years, be couped, and militarized by us, and nato, or sell to china on a rent to own agreement.

the japanese shouldn't feel bad, when the un made you asian, they made me european, and my black neighbor african.

in the nwo, any whites, staying behind in the pan americans will not be allowed to breed, the rest of the whites, (europeans), will be shipped to europe for skilled labor, the blacks, (africans), will all be shipped to africa.

see, all these choices you worry about now, are irrelavent.

 

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 03:36 | 5549746 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Whose cat is that. ? The man looks like a child molester.

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 14:22 | 5550619 EemieMeanieMinieMoe
EemieMeanieMinieMoe's picture

He seems to be stroking his pussy......

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 04:39 | 5549793 hedgiex
hedgiex's picture

Perceptive...a frontal assault on the export machines of China and Asia. China's export machine is creaking and while they can still disengage from the global chains of the global real economy with miseries, the rest of Asia shall eat grass.

Investments in the tangibles/physicals in these places should be the answer to wealth preservation but not now. Look at oil like a currency for real economies. Until the commodities fall in tandem, buy and store away from the potential confiscatory moves of these crony governments. Holding papers with multitude claims to the physicals is not the same thing.

Can't talk about Europe or LATAM in which I do not breathe there.

 

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 07:47 | 5549889 StopBeingParanoid
StopBeingParanoid's picture

Larry Summers and the IMF have been unfairly put in the same group of Krookman&co.

Anyway, I suspect the Japanese government and even the voters are ok with losing some of their pension if it means kicking China in the butts. You can live good in Japan even if your pension is 30% or 40% lower; at worst you move to S.E. Asia, where they would gladly accept your reduced pension and in exchange provide you with a good lifestyle during your silver years.

You know, Japan is a weird place full of weird people, who collectively are able to do great things... Will the average Japanese be better off after the bust? Probably not. Would they be better off in 50 years? Probably. The alternative would have been population increase and rejuvenation through immigration, which is not only not feasible (language, culture, etc...) but also not wanted by a majority of racist Japanese voters.

tl;dr bust is coming, but it's the best option ***for them***

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 08:25 | 5549919 kappal_toba_dhu...
kappal_toba_dhurr_ne_thook's picture

Japanese people have spoken. They know when something is working. No lemmings there.

Americanos have also spsoken. They knew when something is NOT working. No lemmings there either.

Communist Chinese can't speak. They have no idea what is going on and are brainwashed to the hilt!

 

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 11:37 | 5550195 Realname
Realname's picture

In that picture, which is the bigger pussy? And by, which is the bigger, Im not referring to which is the fattest (as, that can be seen rather clearly).

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 12:14 | 5550283 Ewtman
Ewtman's picture

Abenomics will eventually be seen for what it actually is... ahuge failure of catastrophics proportion.

 

http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/abenomics-from-faith-to-failurethe-la...

 

Mon, 12/15/2014 - 05:51 | 5552730 Billy Bob101
Billy Bob101's picture

It's the same story where ever the money masters have taken over.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!