Kerry, Japan's doing okay. They come out to Kiwiland, convert a few yen to dollars [Kiwi ones, with the flightless Kiwi on them rather than a soaring eagle] and have a lot of fun for a week before going back to the salt mines and coal face in Japan for another year of hard yakker.
While the Nikkei is down to the same level as 16 years ago, that's not all bad [paper losses from 38,000 notwithstanding - which were of course actual losses for those who bought at the top, but those were corresponding actual gains for those who sold at the top].
The exchange rate back then was 250 yen to the dollar <Now however, Japan in conjunction with the finance authorities of four other major nations, has begun a concerted effort to drive down the dollar. The program was initiated in September1985 and the Japanese yen has been the foreign currency which has appreciated the most against the dollar. In September, when the joint effort was initiated, the yen was trading at a level of 240-250 yen to the dollar. A few months earlier the yen had fallen as low as 265 yen to the dollar. By the end of 1985 the yen had appreciated to approximately 200 yen to the dollar, or an appreciation of around 25% from its low point for the year. > japanlaw.com
So, we can see that in US$ terms, the Nikkei is not at all bad. It has increased, while paying dividends, from 11,000 in 1985 to [currency adjusted] 25,000 today. While that's not as hysterically exciting or irrationally exuberant as the Dow and Nasdaq, it's better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
In the meantime, Japanese have enjoyed a very wealthy lifestyle. They come to NZ, flick us a few yen and have fun. snowadventures.co.nz They have cellphone systems which make us look like cave men. We buy their used cars and do a lot of car repairs. We supply them fish, which is too expensive for many of us to eat.
I don't feel in the slightest sorry for them. They come out here and live in our house and learn Engrish, on our websites too, which are built at $5 an hour: eigokyoshitsu.com
and play golf [and get fat - until they go back to the low calorie, low heart-disease world of sushi]. They fill 747s around the world, touring [and sleeping on buses].
Heck, you'd think they won the war! As I've pointed out, they did. Not the bomb and gun war, which they lost, but the far more important chequebook battle where people choose their supplier rather than have it forced on them.
Japan is funding a lot of developments around the world. Sure, there is a bit of a glitch in their financial markets, with a few bad debts piled up. But that's life in the fast lane. Remember the US Savings and Loan mess? It was but a glitch in the long run.
If you want to feel sorry for somebody, check out Kiwiland, ruled now by Helengrad and as the tears roll down your cheeks as you study our declined state from our glory days in the 1960s, email me some US$ via PayPal! That'll help cheer me up. Click on my name above and email US$ to me - or sign up to PayPal and nominate me as your introducer. Sniff, sniff, sob....
Mqurice
PS: If you want to see real emotional scars, you'd best look for more than a ding in a bank balance. |
