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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Attack II - A Complete Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DukeCrow who wrote (1718)	3/2/2001 2:19:46 AM
From: JRI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52237

OT Ali- I really disagree.....we could debate for quite some time, and it's late now, a couple points only: (1) The Japanese people HAVE suffered. There is no affordable housing in Japan. If you lucky enough to own an appartment, it is, in often cases, the equivelent of 1/2 a studio in the U.S. (2) Japan is extremely expensive. Everything from fruits and vegetables, to eating out, to (on and on). Their low unemployment rate (and unwillingness to go thru the inevitable downcycles in capitalism)..has led to oligopolistic socialism that ensures, yes, high employment, but also severe misallocations of capital, a terribly inefficient distribution system in many areas, and a banking system on verge of collapse... (3) Japan has a huge demographic problem. Japan will be one of the oldest, if not the oldest Western country within 20 years. You think we got "who's gonna pay into the system problems"? Japan's will be much worse than U.S., Germany, and even Italy... (4) Despite the oft-praised saving rates of Japanese individual, the government is piling up debt like no tomorrow....and, despite this, their economy is still unable to get out a decade-long recession.....Savings should include both individual and government. There are severe systemic problems in Japan; Ironically, the Japanese have shown little willingness to get to the root of the problem. Increasingly, wealth is a function of cultural and education. Note: I am not judging cultures here. One culture is never "better" than another judged on the basis of wealth. But it is clear that some cultures are better equiped to produce wealth than others. Barring major changes (which would require gut-wrenching cultural change- practically the hardest thing to do), I don't see how the Japanese are going to come out of their current slide...the Nikkei too, for that matter, as long as the banks are not willing to come clean....