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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (1322)	6/28/2000 9:34:00 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

LOL, The mind reels - James Smith... You are a "Japanese SalaryMan" making a lousy wage but at least you have a guaranteed position at the company for life. Your wife is nervous that you are going to get fired because she rightly figures that if you are as useless at the company as you are around the house, you'll be the first to get the axe. So what does she do? She puts even more of your savings into the Post Office even though the current return is less than 1%. In fact, by socking away so much money, your wife as well as every other housewife in Japan, is causing the Japanese economy to contract. So when the Nikkei tanks and the economy spins downward because the idiots at the BOJ decide "now" is the time to raise rates (slowing the economy), you do in fact lose your job. The BOJ quickly realize that it was about as wise to raise rates at this juncture as it was for the JPN govt to raise the consumption tax in 1997, but the damage is already done. The Nikkei has gone into a Mexican Swan Dive. The BOJ quickly announce that no more rate hikes are planned, but the market doesn't trust them, and continues to punish the Nikkei. The BOJ then begin to add monetary stimulus to the system...quite aggressively to make up for the stupidity of their recent rate hike.....and this only causes the Yen to slide. Your wife goes to the Post Office to get her savings, but she can't because about 100 million other Japanese had the same idea at the same time. No one wants to keep their money in Yen because everyone knows it will become monopoly money. Your wife rants at you non-stop and you are tired of dressing in your suit and leaving for the office job that no longer exists to sit on a park bench. You think about killing yourself, but you don't have a gun and you don't like pain. On the way home you have a heart attack. Your wife is sorry that you are dead, but immediately calls the Life Insurance company to collect on the insurance plan you had taken out. The insurance company folded right before your wife called. Once again your wife is pissed off at you. If you had only died a few days earlier she'd have gotten the life insurance money. But it turns out that plenty of other wives' husbands died before you did, which caused the Life Company to fold. Call it "negative payout" if it makes you feels better. She cannot collect on the insurance until the govt sorts outs the mess. The govt's brilliant idea is to saddle any good Life Insurance companies with the obligations of the bankrupt ones.... kinda like what they did with the banking crisis. Mega-mergers to create a bigger mess. Because of a near total loss of confidence in the government, new elections are called for. But before the election takes place an earthquake hits Tokyo. With the chaos comes opportunity.... for some. Ishihara-san (current Mayor of Tokyo) manages to seize control of the govt in what effectively becomes Marshall Law. China and the rest of Asia are none too pleased to see a rabid nationalist like Ishihara-san in charge of Japan. Menacing words are exchanged and a new round military defense spending in Asia turns into a global arms race. Your wife feels bad about you dying, but she truly feels you're the lucky one to have died before things got really nasty. And if you are not a Japanese Salaryman, do you honestly believe you will go unaffected by these events??? Have a nice day.