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Quote of the Day
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph"
–Haile Selassie
–Haile Selassie
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Women Prefer Men Who Own Bonds. WTF?
So basically Japan is fooked. If this isn't a clear signal that they are at the end of their rope I don't know what is.
Buy metal people!!!!
From Bloomberg...
Women Prefer Men Holding State Bonds, Japan Ad Says (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Wes Goodman and Theresa Barraclough
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese women are seeking men who invest in government bonds, according to an advertisement being run by the Ministry of Finance.
“I want my future husband to be diligent about money,” a 27-year-old woman says in an ad being run in free magazines promoting a fixed-rate, three-year note that Japan started selling last week. “Playboys are no good.” She’s one of five women featured in the page, which says “Men who hold JGBs are popular with women!!”
The ministry commissioned the ads to appeal to citizens for money at a time when record government borrowing threatens to outstrip demand. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who took office yesterday, said he doesn’t have an instant fix to rein in the world’s largest public debt.
The government’s plan to attract marrying-age men comes after a campaign aimed at retirees started last August. That push featured Junko Kubo, a former anchor on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, in ads placed in the backs of taxi cabs. Kubo followed Koyuki, an actress and model who in 2003 appeared in “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise as well as posters for government bonds.
“It strikes of desperation,” Christian Carrillo, a senior interest-rate strategist in Tokyo at Societe Generale SA said about the ad campaign. “I doubt this will be a successful strategy to attract retail investors.”
Individuals can buy government debt at local banks for 10,000 yen ($109) according to the ads. The finance ministry in 2002 hired Koushiro Matsumoto, an actor in Kabuki theater, and model Norika Fujiwara in its bond campaigns.
Japan’s government debt amounted to a record 882.9 trillion yen as of March 31, according to the Ministry of Finance. A 600 billion yen sale of 30-year bonds yesterday attracted bids for 2.25 times the amount on offer, the least since April 2004.
Biggest Market
Japan has the world’s largest bond market, followed by the U.S., based on a ranking of 35 nations by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, using data through September 2009. Kan, the former finance minister, takes office facing a debt burden that has increased by almost 80 percent in a decade and it is equivalent to 180 percent of the nation’s annual economic output.
“I don’t think fiscal rehabilitation can be done overnight,” he told reporters last week.
Moody’s Investors Service rates Japan’s debt at Aa2, the third-highest investment grade, with a stable outlook. Standard & Poor’s cut the outlook on Japan’s AA grade in January, citing diminishing “flexibility” to cope with the nation’s swelling debt load.
Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s decision to quit last week “has no credit implications, but that in itself is positive news, given reports that Japan’s ship of state is rudderless,” Thomas Byrne, senior vice president of Moody’s, wrote in a statement released June 7.
Declining Holdings
“The world is full of dirty shirts in terms of excessive debt,” Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview June 4.
Japanese households have started to cut their holdings of the nation’s debt. Their ownership of government securities declined to 35 trillion yen as of Dec. 31 from a record 36.7 trillion yen a year earlier, according to the Bank of Japan.
Masaaki Kaizuka, director of debt management at the Ministry of Finance, aims to change that.
The ministry started selling three-year bonds tailored for individuals on June 3, after conducting a market survey that showed pent-up demand for shorter-term securities, Kaizuka said.
‘Untouched Group’
“What we can do is try to attract an untouched group of people to find a different sort of investor,” Kaizuka said. Shorter bonds are seen as safer because they mature faster.
This campaign for JGBs was crafted by Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest advertising company, which the ministry chose through an annual bidding process, Kaizuka said.
“Retail government bonds, which provide the peace of mind that women want, are now available in three-year maturities with a fixed rate,” the ad says.
The bonds are called “Kotei3,” meaning “Fixed3” because they mature in three years.
Japanese government securities maturing in 2013 yield 0.176 percent as of 3:26 p.m. in Tokyo, versus 1.20 percent for same- maturity debt in the U.S.
The yield turns to about 1.38 percent in Japan after accounting for falling prices in the economy. The so-called real yield in the U.S. is negative 1 percent.
Japan’s bonds handed investors a 1.32 percent gain this year, versus 3.96 percent for sovereign debt globally, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Wes Goodman in Singapore at wgoodman@bloomberg.net; Theresa Barraclough in Tokyo at tbarraclough@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 9, 2010 02:36 EDT
Buy metal people!!!!
From Bloomberg...
Women Prefer Men Holding State Bonds, Japan Ad Says (Update1)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Wes Goodman and Theresa Barraclough
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese women are seeking men who invest in government bonds, according to an advertisement being run by the Ministry of Finance.
“I want my future husband to be diligent about money,” a 27-year-old woman says in an ad being run in free magazines promoting a fixed-rate, three-year note that Japan started selling last week. “Playboys are no good.” She’s one of five women featured in the page, which says “Men who hold JGBs are popular with women!!”
The ministry commissioned the ads to appeal to citizens for money at a time when record government borrowing threatens to outstrip demand. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who took office yesterday, said he doesn’t have an instant fix to rein in the world’s largest public debt.
The government’s plan to attract marrying-age men comes after a campaign aimed at retirees started last August. That push featured Junko Kubo, a former anchor on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, in ads placed in the backs of taxi cabs. Kubo followed Koyuki, an actress and model who in 2003 appeared in “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise as well as posters for government bonds.
“It strikes of desperation,” Christian Carrillo, a senior interest-rate strategist in Tokyo at Societe Generale SA said about the ad campaign. “I doubt this will be a successful strategy to attract retail investors.”
Individuals can buy government debt at local banks for 10,000 yen ($109) according to the ads. The finance ministry in 2002 hired Koushiro Matsumoto, an actor in Kabuki theater, and model Norika Fujiwara in its bond campaigns.
Japan’s government debt amounted to a record 882.9 trillion yen as of March 31, according to the Ministry of Finance. A 600 billion yen sale of 30-year bonds yesterday attracted bids for 2.25 times the amount on offer, the least since April 2004.
Biggest Market
Japan has the world’s largest bond market, followed by the U.S., based on a ranking of 35 nations by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, using data through September 2009. Kan, the former finance minister, takes office facing a debt burden that has increased by almost 80 percent in a decade and it is equivalent to 180 percent of the nation’s annual economic output.
“I don’t think fiscal rehabilitation can be done overnight,” he told reporters last week.
Moody’s Investors Service rates Japan’s debt at Aa2, the third-highest investment grade, with a stable outlook. Standard & Poor’s cut the outlook on Japan’s AA grade in January, citing diminishing “flexibility” to cope with the nation’s swelling debt load.
Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s decision to quit last week “has no credit implications, but that in itself is positive news, given reports that Japan’s ship of state is rudderless,” Thomas Byrne, senior vice president of Moody’s, wrote in a statement released June 7.
Declining Holdings
“The world is full of dirty shirts in terms of excessive debt,” Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview June 4.
Japanese households have started to cut their holdings of the nation’s debt. Their ownership of government securities declined to 35 trillion yen as of Dec. 31 from a record 36.7 trillion yen a year earlier, according to the Bank of Japan.
Masaaki Kaizuka, director of debt management at the Ministry of Finance, aims to change that.
The ministry started selling three-year bonds tailored for individuals on June 3, after conducting a market survey that showed pent-up demand for shorter-term securities, Kaizuka said.
‘Untouched Group’
“What we can do is try to attract an untouched group of people to find a different sort of investor,” Kaizuka said. Shorter bonds are seen as safer because they mature faster.
This campaign for JGBs was crafted by Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest advertising company, which the ministry chose through an annual bidding process, Kaizuka said.
“Retail government bonds, which provide the peace of mind that women want, are now available in three-year maturities with a fixed rate,” the ad says.
The bonds are called “Kotei3,” meaning “Fixed3” because they mature in three years.
Japanese government securities maturing in 2013 yield 0.176 percent as of 3:26 p.m. in Tokyo, versus 1.20 percent for same- maturity debt in the U.S.
The yield turns to about 1.38 percent in Japan after accounting for falling prices in the economy. The so-called real yield in the U.S. is negative 1 percent.
Japan’s bonds handed investors a 1.32 percent gain this year, versus 3.96 percent for sovereign debt globally, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Wes Goodman in Singapore at wgoodman@bloomberg.net; Theresa Barraclough in Tokyo at tbarraclough@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 9, 2010 02:36 EDT
Friday, June 4, 2010
Quote of the Day
“Of all races in an advanced stage of civilization, the American is the least accessible to long views… Always and everywhere in a hurry to get rich, he does not give a thought to remote consequences; he sees only present advantages… He does not remember, he does not feel, he lives in a materialist dream.”
—Moiseide Ostrogorski (1902, 302-303)
—Moiseide Ostrogorski (1902, 302-303)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Great Depression Redux
I am still amazed that to this day there are folks out there that think things are back on track and life will just carry like it always has; because the inconvenience otherwise would be too much to bear.
Consider these statements, link is from Denninger
Does Anyone Remember 1931?
Of course not.
In 1930 there were all sorts of statements about how it was "all under control" and "prosperity was returning." Some examples of the 1929 and 1930 idiocy:
"Financial storm definitely passed." - Bernard Baruch, cablegram to Winston Churchill, November 15, 1929
"I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism... I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year the country will make steady progress." - Andrew W. Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury December 31, 1929
"I am convinced that through these measures we have reestablished confidence." - Herbert Hoover, December 1929
"[1930 will be] a splendid employment year." - U.S. Dept. of Labor, New Year's Forecast, December 1929
"For the immediate future, at least, the outlook (stocks) is bright." - Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in Economics, in early 1930
"...there are indications that the severest phase of the recession is over..." - Harvard Economic Society (HES) Jan 18, 1930
"There is nothing in the situation to be disturbed about." - Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, Feb 1930
"The spring of 1930 marks the end of a period of grave concern...American business is steadily coming back to a normal level of prosperity." - Julius Barnes, head of Hoover's National Business Survey Conference, Mar 16, 1930
"... the outlook continues favorable..." - HES Mar 29, 1930
"... the outlook is favorable..." - HES Apr 19, 1930
"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst -- and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us." - Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930
"...by May or June the spring recovery forecast in our letters of last December and November should clearly be apparent..." - HES May 17, 1930
"Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over." - Herbert Hoover, responding to a delegation requesting a public works program to help speed the recovery, June 1930
"... irregular and conflicting movements of business should soon give way to a sustained recovery..." - HES June 28, 1930
"... the present depression has about spent its force..." - HES, Aug 30, 1930
"We are now near the end of the declining phase of the depression." - HES Nov 15, 1930
Then there was this little "event" in 1931.
Creditanstalt.
A bank in Austria. A big one, in fact.
It swallowed a debt-ridden rival during the depths of the original crash (sound familiar? Greece gets IMF money but there's no realistic way they can pay anyway) and failed in the spring of 1931.
The panic spread to Germany, and bank runs began (sound familiar?- Greece gets a supposed bailout, but the CDS and bond markets for everyone else over there that are levered too highly continue to blow out?)
Bernanke claims to be a student of The Depression.
But like Hoover and our Fed of the day, during the original iteration of the credit collapse both The Fed and Administration refused to force de-leveraging and the recognition of losses; indeed, they did the opposite - they put in place programs to intentionally lie about asset quality and financial institution health.
Now the latent insolvency that was already present has come to the forefront in Europe, exactly as I expected it would - that the second wave would not start here, in The United States.
I have said this, in fact, for nearly two years - when there was plenty of time to not make this mistake.
But just like in 1930, protecting the rich and powerful who screwed the nation out of its wealth and jobs was more important to the politicians and policy-makers than serving the people of the country and holding those who caused the crisis to account.
Now we are on the edge of realization of the same risks and outcomes that we had in the 1930s.
Doing the same thing over and expecting to get a different result is one common definition of insanity.
Ben Bernanke and President Obama are insane, and time to alter course either has - or shortly will - run out.
Consider these statements, link is from Denninger
Does Anyone Remember 1931?
Of course not.
In 1930 there were all sorts of statements about how it was "all under control" and "prosperity was returning." Some examples of the 1929 and 1930 idiocy:
"Financial storm definitely passed." - Bernard Baruch, cablegram to Winston Churchill, November 15, 1929
"I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism... I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year the country will make steady progress." - Andrew W. Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury December 31, 1929
"I am convinced that through these measures we have reestablished confidence." - Herbert Hoover, December 1929
"[1930 will be] a splendid employment year." - U.S. Dept. of Labor, New Year's Forecast, December 1929
"For the immediate future, at least, the outlook (stocks) is bright." - Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in Economics, in early 1930
"...there are indications that the severest phase of the recession is over..." - Harvard Economic Society (HES) Jan 18, 1930
"There is nothing in the situation to be disturbed about." - Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, Feb 1930
"The spring of 1930 marks the end of a period of grave concern...American business is steadily coming back to a normal level of prosperity." - Julius Barnes, head of Hoover's National Business Survey Conference, Mar 16, 1930
"... the outlook continues favorable..." - HES Mar 29, 1930
"... the outlook is favorable..." - HES Apr 19, 1930
"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst -- and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us." - Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930
"...by May or June the spring recovery forecast in our letters of last December and November should clearly be apparent..." - HES May 17, 1930
"Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over." - Herbert Hoover, responding to a delegation requesting a public works program to help speed the recovery, June 1930
"... irregular and conflicting movements of business should soon give way to a sustained recovery..." - HES June 28, 1930
"... the present depression has about spent its force..." - HES, Aug 30, 1930
"We are now near the end of the declining phase of the depression." - HES Nov 15, 1930
Then there was this little "event" in 1931.
Creditanstalt.
A bank in Austria. A big one, in fact.
It swallowed a debt-ridden rival during the depths of the original crash (sound familiar? Greece gets IMF money but there's no realistic way they can pay anyway) and failed in the spring of 1931.
The panic spread to Germany, and bank runs began (sound familiar?- Greece gets a supposed bailout, but the CDS and bond markets for everyone else over there that are levered too highly continue to blow out?)
Bernanke claims to be a student of The Depression.
But like Hoover and our Fed of the day, during the original iteration of the credit collapse both The Fed and Administration refused to force de-leveraging and the recognition of losses; indeed, they did the opposite - they put in place programs to intentionally lie about asset quality and financial institution health.
Now the latent insolvency that was already present has come to the forefront in Europe, exactly as I expected it would - that the second wave would not start here, in The United States.
I have said this, in fact, for nearly two years - when there was plenty of time to not make this mistake.
But just like in 1930, protecting the rich and powerful who screwed the nation out of its wealth and jobs was more important to the politicians and policy-makers than serving the people of the country and holding those who caused the crisis to account.
Now we are on the edge of realization of the same risks and outcomes that we had in the 1930s.
Doing the same thing over and expecting to get a different result is one common definition of insanity.
Ben Bernanke and President Obama are insane, and time to alter course either has - or shortly will - run out.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Why We Are Going Crazy
It's no mystery that Americans are a little left of center but why?
Perhaps it's the media and the Propaganda Machine running it...? Tell me, what do you make of this...?
Today from NPR:
Apartment Rents Rise As Vacancies Stay Flat
"After more than a year of declines, rents for apartments rose during the first quarter."
Fair enough. But then there's this from Bloomberg:
U.S. Apartment Rents Decline as Vacancies at Record, Reis Says.
"U.S. apartment rents dropped in the first quarter and the vacancy rate remained at a record as unemployment near a 26-year high limited tenant demand."
Oh I see. Well, off to take my meds and go sleepy time!
Perhaps it's the media and the Propaganda Machine running it...? Tell me, what do you make of this...?
Today from NPR:
Apartment Rents Rise As Vacancies Stay Flat
"After more than a year of declines, rents for apartments rose during the first quarter."
Fair enough. But then there's this from Bloomberg:
U.S. Apartment Rents Decline as Vacancies at Record, Reis Says.
"U.S. apartment rents dropped in the first quarter and the vacancy rate remained at a record as unemployment near a 26-year high limited tenant demand."
Oh I see. Well, off to take my meds and go sleepy time!
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