Zeev writes: >They are the only one in that region that have the money statched away to do it.<
Lawrence writes: >You'll have to help me out on this. Has all this discretionary money effectively taken out of circulation been locked up in savings accounts or in mattresses? If the former, net outflow out of "asset-free" banks is a tad, um, disturbing.<
Lawrence,
I believe I understand what you are saying. But in my opinion, consumer stimulus is an excellent idea. The net outflow in April was $23 billion. The average Japanese family has $100,000 in savings. This adds up to, I believe, something like $5 trillion! So even though the outflow ($23 Billion) may seem large, compared to how much the Japanese have saved ($5 Trillion) it is not. So if only the government COULD get the Japanese to spend some of this savings, it would be a remarkable stimulus.
But there is no way this is going to happen (IMHO). I have to agree with Zeev. They are all scared. I can't blame them from the perspective of being in an eight year recession. As a matter of fact home safe sales have gone up recently and some attribute it to the Japanese saver being afraid of bank failures.
MikeM(From Florida) |
