Jim. Are you saying here that the US had rigged the situation so that our crappy stuff could out-sell Japan's cooler stuff? Just wondering cause almost.every time I used to watch Today's Japan I'd be impressed by some seemingly amazing new product that I'd never hear about again, and I always thought that was weird.
>a cheaper dollar can and
>I believe has resulted in more US Dept. I exports, perhaps at the expense
>of competitors. (E.g. Barbara and I were shown in Japan in the early 1990s
>a "mother machine," originally designed in the US and Germany, with the
>tolerances so small that neither US or Germany had at that time achieved
>them. A laser machine. At least four countries export mother machines
> I mean, hasn't there been a reallocation of
>productive (industrial) capital to the US,
I was surprised to read today, in the Atlanta Jaundice and Constipation, that Japan has 3.5 bn invested in GA. (odd aside-Japan's 3.5 bn creates 28,780 j0bs and is top investing country, Netherlands invests 1.2 bn to create 14,758 jobs, and is in 5 th place, but in 2nd place, s.Korea invests 2.7 bn, only creating 304 jobs. How could they possibly manage that?)
>I'm telling you, friends, economic analysis seems to have little use with
>respect international relations, esp. between US and Japan! Basically I
>see the whole thing as a nest of political problems, not primarily economic
>issues.
In my digital roamings I've gotten the impression that Japan has started to see the problem in this way which is why they are radicalized, as Krugman puts it in Slate.
The economic meetings between Japan and EU guvs feels very political to me, and I believe this is a backdrop which will create an almost patriotic recovery effort to reflate Japan's economy, by any means necessary.
Reading Jim's post reminded me of those stats I read about how US firms rent the majority of office space in Bejing and the Singapore capital, which escapes me now. And would US capital, looking about a thriving Japan, with it's several advantages as they would relate to the future biggest markets known to man, NOT do anything and everything in their power to destroy the Japanese economy?
Which I guess is part of the meta-narrative that had me searching for my dream Japan fund,(though I putzed around and didn't buy it till last week) and talking about it on this list, well over a month ago, I think. So if anyone talks to this guy Krugman, please let him know, you heard it HERE first.
Lost in obsessions and missin' all yer brains and pixels- smooches, paula
what follows is conclusion to Krugman's article in today's Slate, which considering his all-wise sooth-seer tone, I think should be retitled----
LIKE, NO DUH KRUGMAN!
But if the BOJ is determined enough--and if people like me have analyzed Japan's plight correctly--then six months or a year from now Japan may be on the road to an economic recovery more dramatic than anyone would now dare to forecast. By sometime next year, the Land of the Rising Sun may, at least for a while, live up to its billing. You heard it here first.