Now I pulled these comments out of a Street.com article. I bet the Japanese corporate leaders LOVE this type of commentary coming out of the US. Sometimes I really wonder how a country with a majority of the world's savings, can really have a true banking crisis? I think inadvertantly, the whole debt problem crisis with Japan, has done more damage to the US and other Asian nations by giving Japan the green light to crank up their export machine so they can put more money into their nation's bank(IMHO).
>>>>. the Japan issue is starting to loom larger. As many have said, including me, the key to Asia is not Thailand or Indonesia -- or even South Korea. It is Japan. And Japan is ailing. More bank debt problems are surfacing, and, according to U.S. News & World Report, the U.S. government has taken the remarkable step of tacitly okaying a sharper devaluation in the yen.
Allowing the yen to weaken still further, which will start to erode U.S. corporate competitiveness against Japanese companies both at home and abroad, underscores the fear in Washington about Japan's economic malaise. Moreover, the persisting economic problems throughout Asia are taking a toll on the already beleaguered Japanese economic system.
Reports from correspondents indicate that the problems in supposedly placid locales like Singapore continue to deepen. U.S. companies continue to call home overseas staff, and real estate prices continue to fall. Hong Kong's stock market plunge -- in which it's returning to the depths seen last fall -- indicate that the Chinese economy isn't exactly in a formidable position. All these countries, including the more widely known trouble zones like Indonesia, owe money into the Japanese banking system. It is a precarious situation, and that's why Treasury Secretary Rubin would probably allow the yen to get cheaper and the trade deficit to yawn wider. Almost anything to stave off a collapse in Japan. For while the stock market could slog through another quarter of weak earnings with minimal damage, a Japanese collapse would trigger something more dire.
Right now the betting is still with Japan. Massive domestic savings and international attention should prevent the nation from slipping into the abyss. But it's going to be a hairy ride this summer as the nation -- and the world -- watches Japan attempt to dance away from disaster.<<
Give me a break! I don't think anyone needs to feel sorry for Japan. The writer obviously doesn't understand the extent of the "domestic savings" and how the export machine will keep on cranking to add even more savings into their coffers all the while pleading for help with their debt problems.
MikeM(From Florida) |
