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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   919 thread views

Transnational Thursday for May 2, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Japan's interest rates sticking in the negatives while everyone else's are soaring seems like the biggest factor there. You can just borrow yen at 0% and sell it to buy US treasuries for 5%, and if the bank of japan wants to keep rates low they just have to suck it up and subsidize it by burning through their reserves (I think? It's been a long time since int finance)

Whoever in the LDP kept up the pressure to get the reactors back online deserves a medal. They're still importing 10bcf of LNG per day last I checked, but thats 30% less than a decade ago. Plus coal imports are down from the quarter billion ton peak. That'd be absolutely crippling at 150 yen to the dollar.

Japan has structural factors to do with their debt to GDP ratio and demographic pyramid which incentivize them not to prioritize keeping inflation down, doesn't it?

Japan is so weird I hate speculating about it. Just the strangest behavior by consumers and companies. I want to find a reliable expert on the subject, so please let me know if you find one.

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