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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (5806)	8/23/1998 9:59:00 PM
From: Frodo Baxter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Zeev, increasing spending does not necessarily increase profit. During the asset bubble days, Japan was spending just fine. Confidence was supreme as well. But then, as now, they were contributing to the rot. Selling products at a loss (either domestically or internationally) is not the path to prosperity, it's the path to ruination.

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (5806)	8/23/1998 11:48:00 PM
From: Derrick P.	Respond to of 9980

Zeev, <<<<I still seeas the only solution a demand driven recovery for Japan,...>>> Dohmen believes that there is a chance that the current Japanese gov. could pull Japan out of this mess, 'miracles happen, the last one was two thousand years ago.' Kutyn's writings are extensive on Japan, see me last post, he also sees no hope. I like to be optomistic and I appreciate yours, but I'm beginning to believe that something 'smells' from the top down. (I'm a little slow.) What was Japan's solution a while back, sell dollars and buy gold? Hmmmmm. Best, Derrick

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (5806)	8/24/1998 12:40:00 AM
From: Mark Adams	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

People were persuaded that this is the right thing to do, and they can be persuaded again. Japan has a tank full of liquidity locked away in accounts that pay close to peanut, if they release just 2% of that into the economy as a one year "buying" binge (add a tax credit for buying stuff above your normal "buying habits" if you have to), and the engines can be restarted. Whole leagues of marketing types devote their entire lives into convincing people to consume. Wouldn't be better if we presented people with truly compelling products? Or truly compelling investments? The efforts of the marketing types helps keep us closer to full employment during an age when less hours worked are required to meet the species basic needs. But consider the uneven distribution of goods- people do go hungry. Why? There is plenty of work to be done from this perspective, ie Terraforming, Space colonies etc, much of which requires real capital, not more consumption of whoopy cushions. Hows that for a soap box? <g>