You apparently are not old enough to have experienced a crisis.
I guess that depends on how you define a crisis.
The worldwide backdrop is incredibly benign in comparison to the good old sturm und drang days when you'd be walking home from kindergarten looking for any signs of mushroom clouds beyond the hills and a favorite party topic (peoiple used to give parties) was how deep was your bomb shelter.
I wouldn't say this is quite correct. I knew quite a few of us were wondering if the balloon was going to go up during the '80s, with Soviets making a do or die invasion through Fulda Gap. Maybe you didn't feel it, but us folks in the military did.
And besides, you all were worried about a FEW BOMBS carried by intercontinental bombers, while all of us younger folks (as well as you older bio-units) have been living 30 minutes away from death for decades, awaiting only the particular political trigger event that erases our civilization.
So maybe you should reassess your view of the world based upon that fact. The only difference is while you folks were afraid of your shadows, us younger types are just more fatalistic about those events we can't control.
Amazing what people can grow used to.
Btw, I was hoping that you would offer your opinion on what has to happen to shake Japan out of its malaise. They have a larger national debt per capita than the US..., 1 in 6 of their citizens are currently over 65 and aging, they are unable to lower interest rates to stimulate the economy (liquidity trap), possess essentially insolvent banks, yet have a population with some $12 TRILLION in savings in their postal savings banks.
If there is something I'm missing here please let me know, but that last time we saw a major economy facing a liquidity trap, it was in 1933 and its name was the United States. To resolve that, gold was confiscated and the dollar devalued by approx 64%.
Why is Japan different?
Regards,
Ron |
