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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joey Two-Cents who wrote (13538)	9/7/1998 3:19:00 AM
From: Yamakita	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18691

I don't disagree with the corruption/yakuza charges. Guilty as charged. "With the big bang why would the Japanese people put their money in the postal system earning 1/2% when hey can get 5 1/2% in the US?" As it happens I'm writing a book on that very subject! The biggest reason is fear; stock markets, especially overseas stock markets, are seen as akin to Vegas: sheer gambling. The second biggest reason is exchange rates. If someone invests in Treasuries while the yen is at 140, and a year later it rises to 100 (it has a long history of doing that), you've just lost a ton of money, money that would've stayed put in the postal savings system. The yen has gone from 148 three weeks ago to 131 today, a tidy 13 percent drop in less than a month. They've just doubled the performance of Treasuries by not doing anything. It is an extraordinarily conservative society. I hope my book convinces them to do otherwise. "Stocks will collapse and gold will soar. Buy Gold, buy gold, buy gold." Stocks have collapsed. To expect huge declines from here, and to bet on it, is folly, IMGDO.