Abe grapples with tax jinx after BOJ surprise

“Now, wounded by cabinet scandals and growing doubts about his radical “Abenomics” prescription to revive an economy scarred by years of deflation, Abe must decide whether to roll the dice again.”

Does wounded Abe have any other better choice available beside of rolling the dice again ?

Someday when the dust settles, Abe would be remembered for the harms that he induced and inflicted on Japanese people.

Abe's whole economic policy is class warfare. QE is a form of yen inflation (and also provides investors with cheap credit and inflates stock prices) which makes the Japanese currency cheaper. This drives up energy and food prices, as Japan is a major importer, which especially hurts poorer members of society. The consumption tax is regressive, again causing an unfair burden on the lower classes. As well, national and regional taxes have flattened over the past decade, reducing the amount paid by the wealthy. Abe's government has continued, not reversed this trend.

The moves pushed Tokyo share prices, closely watched by Abe as a barometer of economic sentiment, up more than 5 percent. But how much the actions will impress voters, especially those in regions feeling neglected by Abenomics, is unclear.

Clearly out of touch using this method, the average joe doesn't play the stock market and actually has to go to work to earn money, how about they gauged the cost of food, fuel, cost of living , wages etc to evaluate how the economy is doing not the fairy tale world of the share market.

Or maybe he is hinting at average joe to get into the share market, so when it collapses as we know it will average joe will lose everything including the shirt off his back.

A little dose of reality tempered with the knowledge some one could only gain living in the real world not coming from some over entitled political family living a privileged life would go a long ay to understanding how others have to live, abe , aso and their ilk have no idea of real world living.

All an increase in the consumption tax accomplishes is to reduce GDP, while merely speeding up tax collection without increasing tax revenues. The fact that the mainstream, neo-classical economists at the BOJ and MOF can't grasp this basic arithmetic just shows their level of complete incompetence and/or ideology based corruption.

Whatever anybody thinks, pro or con, of Abe a a PM, bottom line is he is getting some seriously bad advice.

A shock move by the Bank of Japan on Friday to expand its massive asset-buying stimulus program - in the hope it will stoke inflation - could boost the chances of a rise in the unpopular levy from October, especially if followed by promises of added fiscal stimulus to help offset the pain.

In more financially oriented sites (not mainstream media types like this) Oct 31 is already being called "The Day Japan Committed Suicide" and is being likened to a drunk about to die from cirrhosis opening his last bottle before dying from years of abuse.

Keep in mind these statements are being made by guys who make their livings understand and trading the markets, and managing billions doing so, not financial journalists who only pretend to know what's what.

Bottom Line: Japan is doomed. Japan has officially jumped the shark. Going forward, fully HALF of Japanese government is spending PRINTED money. (Gov sells bond to BOJ who give freshly printed money to Gov)

NEVER in history has this ended well.

When people realize this won't end well, all yen will flee.

Crack.

Up.

Boom.

For those who don't know what that means, it means hyperinflation. What costs 100 yen today could easily cost 10,000 yen in a year or so. And then 100,000 yen a year after that.

Hyperinflation tends to happen when printing money is all that's left in the economic playbook.

Not good if your income doesn't rise at the same rate.

Not good at all.

Personally I do not care as I can do nothing about it.

Betting? Gambling? I thought these economists were professionals and basing their strategies on fact and sound structures. I guess they are just foolish beaurocrats that spend their free time at the horse track.

So, now that the facts are in that the economy is doing worse than since... wait for it... the exact last time the tax was raised in April, they're thinking of "rolling the dice" again? I'd akin it to playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun than "rolling the dice", except Abe instead has the gun pointed at unwitting players -- the people. And you just gotta love the 'promises for fiscal stimulus to help ease the pain'. You know, those promises that are never quite realized after what those in power get what they are promised first.

The tax hike is undercutting his "Abenomics" policies. Hello? Is he too dumb to see that? Why would he even consider another tax cut?

Hire a robot as prime minister. I hear Nestle is quite happy with them. And when they loose popularity, we can have a live "unboxing."

A shock move by the Bank of Japan on Friday to expand its massive asset-buying stimulus program - in the hope it will stoke inflation - could boost the chances of a rise in the unpopular levy from October, especially if followed by promises of added fiscal stimulus to help offset the pain.

Abe and Kuroda's policies are bad enough for the public, but watching the news media implicitly take the side of the BOJ and the 1% is just infuriating. "Added fiscal stimulus", in addition to tax hikes and yen devaluation, does not offset the pain; it increases it, because everyone's savings will lose value and the costs of anything priced internationally (such as oil) will rise. A tax hike coupled with a rising yen could be weathered by the public because the cost of imported energy would drop. And he could "offset the pain" of a currency devaluation by lowering taxes, which would also keep the outflow from our pockets from rising.

Instead, we get a policy that is akin to "offsetting the pain" of a punch to the left cheek with... a punch to the right cheek.

What's missing is that Japanese ingenuity that made great products the world wanted...now foreboding depression covers the land...so what's affecting Japanese Soul? Answer that and all these current economic problems will become less relevant...I've not seen a Japanese laugh heartily for long time...maybe copying westerners and competing to their standards may not be the way...simplicity in perfection maybe the way...

The going is rough enough but can we not support him for a sense of stability. I just think decisions made are the best we can have right now. Otherwise who could come forward with a concrete and better plan other than to bash and keep on bashing!

Hope Abe is watching more than his ratings and his failing Abenomics. Right now there is a really big problem in the Ogasawara Islands and Izu Islands ... with hundreds of Chinese poachers stealing valuable coral from the sea floor ... which is in Japanese territory. Abe better do something really quick to prevent these thieves from clearing all the coral from Japan's front door.

As the prime minister, he is in position to do something drastic to stop this thievery. He better get on the ball ...

Why, oh why is this Abe still Prime Minister?

His current failure is actually worse than his previous one.

Next PM. please.

With the economy so bad, the yen losing value everyday, will the army of english teachers still flock to Japan for their piss-poorly paid, even in yen terms, jobs??

The going is rough enough but can we not support him for a sense of stability.

No. Because there are lots of better things Abe could be doing to get the economy back on its feet but he's too spineless to take on people with vested interests in maintaining the status quo in order to do any of them. I suspect his plan all along has been to do just enough with the first two "arrows" to keep his LDP support base happy while sort of hoping that might also be enough to trigger some sort of economic revival that would make reforms unnecessary.

The moves pushed Tokyo share prices, closely watched by Abe as a barometer of economic sentiment, up more than 5 percent. But how much the actions will impress voters, especially those in regions feeling neglected by Abenomics, is unclear.

It's like pumping up a bicycle tire with a leak in it.

The writing is on the wall for Abe

Let's not oversight as well the support to Abe's administration dropped 43.5% in August (1.1 points less than July), the lowest level in two consecutive months since assuming power in December 2012. In addition to this, it's the first time the support drops below 50% for a consecutive second period during its course. In the meantime, the disapproval rised 0.5 points, a 35.1%, the highest index ever recorded for the current government. It's motives? Two: one, the mayority rejection of the nuclear plants reactivation and two, the government decision to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution to allow Japan's usage of defense arm forces with allies.