Mike,
>>Money has been pouring into postal savings since the crisis began, last year, and the system now holds, with insurance and pensions, the yen equivalent of $3 trillion-enough to pay off there fifths of America's national debt. It is by far the biggest (and most stagnant) pool of capital in the world.>>
I have a question about those postal savings. Do the banks just stuff it in some humongous mattresses? Don't they loan out that money? Isn't it in unused factories, office buildings, golf courses, exorbitant real estate and stock prices (that aren't so exorbitant any more)? Doesn't much of it just vanish into thin air (or into thin, silicon bytes, in this case) with the depreciation of the yen and, assuming that much of it has been lent out, of other Asian currencies? Poof! Now you see it, now you don't. David Copperfield, watch out, some stiff competition coming your way.
Is there any way for us to know, except to continue to watch as Japan's banks write off their bad loans ($81 billion worth just a few days by the Bank of Tokyo, with more to come)? |
