3 ms·

I suspect the stoical Japanese have already written off all the govt debt they hold If that were the case, they'd be selling their debt, offloading it on the m

by Maro 16y ago

I suspect the stoical Japanese have already written off all the govt debt they hold If that were the case, they'd be selling their debt, offloading it on the market, thus pushing the price down, thus bursting the bubble. Since this hasn't happened, I guess they haven't written their gov't papers off yet.

mikhailfranco 16y ago
I was exaggerating when I said 'all', but probably 'some'. By 'stoical' I meant that they might be prepared to take the loss for the country's sake. After all, they could have always got a better rate by investing abroad, even with some currency risk. The existence of the carry trade shows that international financiers have exploited the stoicism or irrationality of Japanese citizens. Perhaps it is just 'not the done thing' in Japan to short your country, pull out your savings and burst the bubble.
- hga 16y ago
  As I recall it's only quite recently (last decade or two) that the average Japanese has had a non-yen denominated investment option. As I recall, prior to that there were three options, only one of which was sane: The Postal Agency's banking system, which is safe. Regular banks, which are not (latest example I can remember is depositors being presented with loan documents they'd never seen before...). These banks exist for others in the country. Stocks. I really shouldn't have to say anything more about these (see the system of cross holdings and how uppity investors are dealt with), even ignoring the market's very long term if not permanent plunge. Again, the Japanese stock market as I understand it does not exist for the benefit of individual investors. (To my knowledge Japan doesn't or at least didn't have anything like our US TreasuryDirect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TreasuryDirect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TreasuryDirect).)

3 ms·

I suspect the stoical Japanese have already written off all the govt debt they hold If that were the case, they'd be selling their debt, offloading it on the m

by Maro 16y ago

mikhailfranco 16y ago
I was exaggerating when I said 'all', but probably 'some'. By 'stoical' I meant that they might be prepared to take the loss for the country's sake. After all, they could have always got a better rate by investing abroad, even with some currency risk. The existence of the carry trade shows that international financiers have exploited the stoicism or irrationality of Japanese citizens. Perhaps it is just 'not the done thing' in Japan to short your country, pull out your savings and burst the bubble.
- hga 16y ago
  As I recall it's only quite recently (last decade or two) that the average Japanese has had a non-yen denominated investment option. As I recall, prior to that there were three options, only one of which was sane: The Postal Agency's banking system, which is safe. Regular banks, which are not (latest example I can remember is depositors being presented with loan documents they'd never seen before...). These banks exist for others in the country. Stocks. I really shouldn't have to say anything more about these (see the system of cross holdings and how uppity investors are dealt with), even ignoring the market's very long term if not permanent plunge. Again, the Japanese stock market as I understand it does not exist for the benefit of individual investors. (To my knowledge Japan doesn't or at least didn't have anything like our US TreasuryDirect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TreasuryDirect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TreasuryDirect).)