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2 Years Of Abenomics Later: Joblessness Jumps As Retail & Household Spending Slump
For all the constant bullshit spewing from the mouths of any and every Japanese monetary and fiscal policy maker about a "continued moderate recovery", the facts are the facts and the data is the data - 2 years of Abenomics has utterly failed. The lastest example is tonight's triple whammy of surging joblessness (up to 3.6% from 3.4% - highest in 6 months), a 2.0% tumble in retail sales YoY (double expectations and worse since the tax hike), and a plunge in household spending (-5.1% YoY - down for the 10th month in a row). But, of course, Japanese stocks are at 15-year highs - so "everything must be awesome" - what a farce.
Instead of 3 Arrows...
Strike 1 - Japanese Joblessness surges to 6-month highs - far in excess of expectations...
Strike 2 - Retail Sales tumble 2.0% YoY - almost twice as bad as expected - and on par with the tax-hike impact...
Strike 3 - Household Spending collapses 5.1% YoY - the 10th drop in a row...
But...
So everything is awesome!!!
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Put on your Keynesfairer sunglasses and all will be cool.
Nikkei just opened higher. It's all Bullshit!!!
Wait, Japanese jobless rate is 3.6? Is that real or are they better at making shit up than the US?
Is that a poll number or an actuarial one? I suspect the Japanese would probably be less inclined to admit to being unemployed that westerners. They still cling to foolish notions of honor and crap. The enlightened west knows better. Can someone loan me a few bucks? I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a burger today. My disability check should be here by then.
Back in the day, Japanese workers were "guaranteed" employment for life. When that became impossible to keep those promises, the CEO's and higher management in those firms would be so remorseful and shamed that they would kill themselves.
We can only imagine what that would look like in corporate and government-landia in the U.S. under that scenerio. Dream on. :)
I wonder about that also as our true U3 and U6 unemployment number is about 16% and 22% when you add in those 4 week discouraged people they started hiding in the 90's.
All is well in the cherry orchard. Figures and statistics are always ripe for cherry picking. When you can't believe any number what's left? Reminds me of India's political comedy: Who can tell the bigger lie.
I think if they see a homeless man in Yoyogi Park pick up some trash around his makeshift hovel or tends to the rose bushes surrounding the tent city (you would be surprised at how knowledgeable those guys are about roses), he is considered to be gainfully employed.
Unemployment benefits in Japan are not like in the US. In order to collect welfare, you can not have any assets.
There is also the social stigma which drives that homeless man to a tent city in a large public park in Tokyo (it used to be in the underground parking facility of the Tokyo Metropolitan Office towers in Shinjuku until they were "displaced" because of political embarrassment) rather than apply for welfare.
This girl is probably considered to be employed.
Misako Ichimura
Really sad ending to this story soon come, but I figure Japan will recover slowly. The USA however will be ripped to shreads before this is over.
We need to be ripped to shreads. It's called "catharsis".
Wat you mean "We, kemosabe?" Who is ripper and who is the rippee?
The challenge is to adapt to living in abject poverty...happily.
A simple solution is to liberalize drug laws. The world will belong to Pharma and Fritolay.
"The lastest example is tonight's triple whammy of surging joblessness . . ."
How about a surge of Japanese terrified of what the radiation is doing to them and their children? They have nowhere to go, a government they don't trust, they're scared. They're not going to be buying a lot of things they 'might' need, when they know a lot of their medical needs won't be treated by the government - those with radiation ailments don't 'smile enough', and they don't get care.
The Japanese people aren't protesting in the streets like other countries, but rest assured, they are pissed off.
They are bracing to die in silence, the Japanese way, but North America? Not so much. The greatest threat to .gov isn't right wing nutjobs, it's hundreds of millions of people realizing they and their children are dying of radiation poisoning, and their government has done nothing but pad their own feathered nests with medical care the common folk aren't going to get.
If you thought zombie movies are frightening, just wait a year or two. The story throughout the history of mankind is that food riots are the worst. No, it's going to be radiation riots, when it becomes impossible to hide the fact that all the food and water is lethally radioactiave.
Oh my God, "important"...
What a wonderful comment.
The Japanese are one of most beautiful people on this planet.
You'ré right. They know what awaits them in the not too distant future and yet...you'll never see them do a Ferguson...
At least they won't be alone in their suffering as we will all feel the effects of Fukushima in short order.
I can't think of anything clever or cynical to add.
God bless the people of Japan and all of us, for that matter.
Can't the Russians share .... some of the valuable lessons .... they learned at Chernobyl .... let's see .... like not warning your neighbors ?
Japanese men are ashamed to loose a job. They lie to their wives, families and friends. They get up every morning and pretend to go to work but instead sitting in cafes looking for job, places purposefully dedicated to this deception. They even let customers to have their own land line telephone with fake secretary in case somebody wants to check on them. They desperately selling out or borrowing money from mafia or whoever to hold on to this deceit often committing suicide at the end.
Young men massively refrain from taking any responsibility or creating family due to perceived continuing collapse of already depressed economy in the future. Japanese are selling out everything they own on local markets and internet, therefore store sale collapsed. Like everywhere else second tier of society developed. Millions are living on one rice bowl a day to pay rent and medicine direct result of genocidal policies of Japanese central bank.
For honest opinion go to:
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/japan-miracle-that-wa...
Ya, so whats your point, Scatha?
They suffer in silence, keep up appearences and perform Harikari when all else fails...much better than the scene from the USSA when EBT cards were offline for 2 days!
I guess dignity is a dirty word where you come from.
The young men don't want to start family because the women are so fucking entitled and have absorbed feminist behavior from the West so that men don't want to be bothered anymore with them...
Do you know the Grass-Eater ? Apparently not.
"The Japanese people aren't protesting in the streets like other countries, but rest assured, they are pissed off."
If dey're pissed off, den why de hell do dey continue to re-elect the same deadbeat ?
It ain't stoopidity, its insanity.
Mebbe dey is waiting for Uncle Sam to blast dem chicoms and send dem shiploads of chicom comfort wimmen to boost de GDP.
The shittiest jobs go first .... then the good jobs .... then the government jobs .... oh, wait .... they never go !
Dup Re-Cycle for Global Warming: Go into any new, upscale middle class neighborhood .... knock on some doors .... take a poll .... what % are government workers ?
Quick, get Krugtard on the phone.
Most private, enterprizing citizens .... if they lost everything .... would begin to pick themselves up immediately .... would live better than the permanent poor .... would be resourceful and imaginative .... Hell, everyone should go through it !
Another dup .... Ho Li Fuk .... what am I doing wrong ?
Looks good over in Japan, Abe is a genuine fuking genius. Let's do moar of the same! /s
When do the central bankers wake up and say, hmmm we might not be on the right track here, we might want to try a different strategy. If they don't change this failing strategy then it's obvious they will have to be changed by the people.
The central bankers AND the governments know they are on the wrong track, but they are afraid and/or unwilling to do the right things because of self interest and/or electorate reasons :
1. break the bankers' casino-behaviour by re-installing legislation like the Glass-Steagall act, make naked short selling illegal, make off-balance activities illegal ( derivative trading, special purpose vehicles, ... )
2. make budget overruns on government spendings illegal and hold the involved politicians responsible. ( will never happen, where would it all end, each and every politician in jail )
3. re-instate a gold standard instead of the current fiat money Ponzi scheme
4. stop all forms of subsidies for the self declared "needy" : they only get needier and more numerous as time progresses ( by breeding, immigration or just laziness ).
5. decrease all kinds of taxes which are not being used for something "tangible". ( road maintenance, infrastructure, energy supply, affordable healthcare, education )
The bankers and politicians have only one credo : après moi, le déluge. ( as ascribed to the French king Louis XIV, after me, cometh the flood ).
Very precarious jobs are provided for part timers, young and old. From the elevator lady to the traffic regulator on construction sites, they are useless and unproductive but they make stats look good.
I can't wait for the big Shabalabadingdong - I can't stand all those parasites hooked on hentai and MMORPG.
And all this time, Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning champion of Keynesian economics, has been advising the Japanese on how best to "recover" by spending their way out of the problem. It's working so well that the US is doing the same thing but expecting entirely different results. Does that logic sound familiar?
Back in the day, Japanese workers were "guaranteed" employment for life. When that became impossible to keep those promises, the CEO's and higher management in those firms would be so remorseful and shamed that they would kill themselves.
We can only imagine what that would look like in corporate and government-landia in the U.S. under that scenerio. Dream on. :)