--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > Daniel
Davies wrote:
>
> >Japan's
> >"current economic morass" (which I *still* can't
> see)
>
> Hmm? You mean it still looks prosperous? Pls
> elaboate...
>
> Doug
Yeah. I'm thinking mainly of the fact that, despite booking three weeks ahead and having God knows how many airline privilege cards, I *still* couldn't get a direct flight to Tokyo at the weekend for love nor money (well, for money, anyway). I ended up flying into Osaka and taking the shinkansen.
Going through Osaka on the local line, then Kyoto and Tokyo suburbs on the express, I really couldn't see signs of a *real* recession, like we 'ave back 'ome. Didn't see one single boarded-up shop; saw that VW are opening up a couple of nice new Bentley dealerships in the centre of Tokyo. I can't see any cranes from my hotel window, but suspect that I would be able to if I were a bit higher up.
The ultimate boom indicator is, obviously, the frequency of fund managers cancelling meetings with brokers at short notice. So far, it's only happened to me once, though it is only Tuesday. Interesting to note that this time (unlike last), the grating Essex accents shouting the odds in the karaoke bars seem to belong to software salesmen and the like rather than brokers.
more to come, maybe ....
dd
PS: regarding the new economy and its affect of the US trade balance; I said it seemed unlikely to me ..... Maybe the US is going to become a net oil exporter or something weird like that?
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