Of course in my eternally anti-gold bug way of thinking it is just another in a long sad line of bad Japanese investment decisions.
Agreed... I've been thinking the same thing. Buying the yellow metal would accomplish nothing except a panic based capital gain (which ain't so bad),.. But eventually the world adjusts and gold would collapse just as quickly as it spiked.
Of course, there is potentially the ugly scenario of OPEC nations demanding payment in gold for their oil.
And I don't think the Japanese are very adept at "dynamic" financial situations. They are a consensus based society, and such financial flexibility would require more authoritarian power... wink, wink, nudge, nudge...
I do see Japan as susceptible to back-sliding towards pre-WWII militarism. Caught a segment last night on the Japanese officer, Onoda, who continued to fight WWII on Lubang Island until 1974, and reportedly was responsible for the killing (many involving posthumous mutilation) some 50 victims in his little private war. But what was more interesting than his story, was that at the recent time of his interview for the program, he was on a lecture tour sponsored by a ultra-conservative Japanese political faction...
And he was unrepentant for his actions during WWII, saw Japan as a US puppet government, and their pacifist society as artificially imposed upon them by the US.
A line of political thought that could become very appealing when it comes time to lay blame for why Japan is in the current straights that it is.
Hawk |
