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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Bidder who wrote (27042)	2/23/2005 1:23:24 PM
From: LLCF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Let's face it... the society is getting sicker and sicker... there are many "causes" to be discussed, sliced, diced and 'corrected' by politicians, but: The reality is {which you've alluded to} is we have evolved with 2 arms and 2 legs... none of which we use. When you lose touch with your body, awareness of all the 'evils' {diet, lifestyle,etc} fades away. When the inevitable debacle hits {global plague, or whatever} it will be the farmers and ditchdiggers of the world who's bodies will be strong enough to survive... while the weakened population gets ravaged... and living in the "advanced west" may well be a detriment, not a help. It's so simple as to be laughable... put this idea in committee of PHD's and 10 years from now you'll get "no conclusion reached" by the genius'! DAK

To: Michael Bidder who wrote (27042)	2/23/2005 1:25:41 PM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 110194

Note that the big problem that Japan is having with it's trade surplus right now is not especially exports, but the high import prices/inflation on commodities, oil, input and capital goods. That's the downside of depressing one's currency down to Us Dollar levels. Perhaps if they let their currency appreciate the import bill would come down. Japan’s trade surplus shrinks 60% in January By David Pilling in Tokyo Japan’s trade surplus shrank sharply in January, providing little evidence of the hoped-for improvement in exports that is needed to reignite the stalled economic recovery. A 60 per cent fall in the trade surplus from a year earlier to Y201bn (US$1.93bn) partly reflected higher commodity prices and greater demand for imported products, itself a fairly healthy sign. About a third of the 11.6 per cent rise in the import bill was due to higher energy costs, particularly oil, which on Wednesday rose to $51 a barrel. The rest was caused by higher commodity prices and domestic demand for consumer and industrial goods. Exports rose just 3.2 per cent in value terms from a year earlier, with shipments to the US sinking for the first time in eight months and those to Europe declining 6.8 per cent. Growth in exports to China - which including Hong Kong is now Japan’s biggest trading partner - accelerated to 13.4 per cent from 8.7 per cent in December. Those to Asia overall rose 8 per cent. But there was no sign of improvement in the important electronics sector, where slowing demand is forcing a damaging inventory adjustment at some of Japan’s biggest companies. The Nikkei stock average fell 0.84 per cent to a two-week low of 11,500.18, and the yen weakened to Y104.74 to the dollar from Y104.10 overnight. Peter Morgan, economist at HSBC in Tokyo, said the trade figures were disappointing. Of government assurances that it was only a matter of time before a pick up in exports revived the flagging economy, he said: “The cheque is still in the mail.” Preliminary numbers last week showed that gross domestic product shrank in three successive quarters last year, revealing the extent to which life has drained out of what had been Japan’s most promising recovery since the bubble burst in 1990. Richard Jerram, economist at Macquarie Securities in Tokyo, one of many who argue that Japan’s economy will begin to grow again this year, detected some hopeful signs in the export figures. Comparing the past three months with the previous quarter, he said, export volumes had grown at an annualised 9.5 per cent. He said this had not yet fed through into stronger industrial production, but said a modest decline in inventories promised a “reasonable rebound” when figures for January were released next week. “It is certainly true that exports have struggled since last summer,” Mr Jerram said. “But on a quarter on quarter basis, exports look encouraging for the first time in several months.”