The consensus - perhaps until today, judging by the performance of Japanese stocks relative to the Yen - is that Abe calling a snap election is bullish, enabling him to re-confirm his mandate to push ahead with uber-dovish devastation of the Japanese economy. However, what few are willing to consider is... what happens if the world's greatest policy madman does not get elected? As the following chart shows, with only 4.4% of Japanese households believing they are better off in the past year [6], perhaps an unelected Abe is the black swan no one is considering currently...
From The Bank of Japan Opinion Survey... [7]
Only 4.4% believe their situation has improved in the last year... and 48.5% believe it has worsened... this is a 6 month trend!
[8]
And additionally... both backward and forward looking views of economic conditions are falling fast...
[9]
and 78.8% of those surveyed believe the prices rises (thanks to Abe's Yen crushing idiocy) are unfavorable...
[10]
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Given the opposition party's unfavorable opinion of the print-money-crush-Yen plan - one can only imagine what happens if Abe loses...
Perhaps that is why things are starting to decouple?
[11]
