JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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GJDailleult
I get why you say that, because that is the conventional wisdom. But it confuses cause and effect. Of course, there are many credit worthy businesses starving for credit because banks are not lending, but that is an effect of the crisis not the cause. The cause is the bursting of the debt bubble and the debt deflation that has followed. Banks can't lend because of losses suffered and coming in the future when the old debts are defaulted on. And they can't make enough profit on new loans to cover the losses because the demand for credit is falling, so they have to hold on to their money and end up not lending to anybody.
As for tkoind2's shoestore, the reason it has disappeared is because of unequal access to credit, and the unequal price of credit that exists between the financial industry (banks, private equity, hedge funds,etc.) and everybody else. If the owner had been able to borrow from the Fed at 0% he would still be in business. But then that would SOCIALISM, and we all know America is a FREE MARKET economy he he! If anybody wants to see an easy to understand example of how this inequality works, just look at what has happened at Manchester United FC. The richest, most successful team in Britain is on the verge of bankruptcy, all because some American "financiers", and the banks and hedge funds that back them wanted to get their hands on the cash flow. Then multiply that a few million times and you will see why we are in this mess.
Basically, the US/UK model of deregulation and "free markets" for everybody except the financial sector, and deregulation, central planning, and socialism for them, has seriously damaged everybody's ability to make a decent living. And for those still making a decent living (including bankers), damaged their ability to continue making a decent living.
Posted in: The punishment of banks: To whose benefit?
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GJDailleult
Timtak - it was quite a brilliant system actually. A Wall Street firm (ie. Goldman Sachs) fronts a mortgage broker (ie. Countrywide) who goes out, makes a lot of mortgages and then sells them back to Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs puts them together into a mortgage backed bond, takes it to a ratings agency (ie. Moody's) who takes their fee and puts a nice fat AAA rating on it. Goldman Sachs then sells the bond to a foreign bank (ie. UBS), everybody pays themselves a nice bonus and they take the rest of the UBS money and do the whole thing all over again. Works great and nice work if you can get it, until you run out of borrowers to take out a mortgage, then the music stops.
Pretty obvious that there was fraud through the whole system from top to bottom. All I am saying is that if the US government was FORCING the banks to make the mortgages through FANNIE and FREDDIE, as is claimed, and allowed the forced mortgages to be sold on to unwitting buyers, then both the Clinton and Bush administrations committed massive criminal fraud, and the US government should be sued and taken to the cleaners by the rest of the world. There is no other way to look at it.
Posted in: Obama swipes at GOP while pitching aid for small businesses
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GJDailleult
Ok, I'll say it again - these loans were packaged into mortgage bonds and sold on to third parties who were not under the control of the US government, and not forced to buy the bonds. Either you are saying these banks bought the bonds (loans made under political pressure to people who can't repay) because they are a) incredibly stupid and incompetent idiots, or b) the US government under both Clinton and Bush engaged in criminal systemic fraud by allowing these bonds to be sold to third parties without disclosing the true quality of the bond.
As I don't think even bankers are that stupid, you must be accusing your government (Republican president from 2001 to 2008 I remind you) of criminal activity.
Posted in: Obama swipes at GOP while pitching aid for small businesses
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GJDailleult
Could we just drop this whopper. Anybody who knows anything about the crisis knows that these loans were securitized and packaged as C.D.O's, and then sold on to third parties, often outside the USA, who were NOT forced to buy them. Why would they do that if they were bad loans forced on banks that they didn't want to make? They would just say sorry chump, you are stuck with them. So are you really accusing bankers of being that stupid? Nobody was doing anything they didn't want to do, it was all just part of the scam to boost short-term profits.
Posted in: Obama swipes at GOP while pitching aid for small businesses
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GJDailleult
Good points by Tahoochi. It's also possible that they knew there was no fix, but felt it was so important to get the cars off the road that they forced the recall, as well as the sales and production stops, and ignored the standard procedure.
Posted in: U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood says Toyota slow to respond
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GJDailleult
There are no more greener pastures, that is the whole point. The business model of infinitely expanding debt is dead, because the world economy can't take on any more debt. Only governments can take on the debt to feed the banks and hide their losses, and create the imaginary profits needed to pay the bonuses. Real estate, services, manufacturing are all going down, but not because banks tighten credit. They will go down because the demand for credit is falling as debt is paid off or defaulted on. It's a demand problem, not a supply problem (although most banks probably don't really have any credit to supply anymore anyways).
Posted in: The punishment of banks: To whose benefit?
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GJDailleult
Get used to seeing a lot of this kind of stuff - "punishment of banks", "public anger", "populism" etc. The propaganda wars have just started.
This article makes sense only if you buy the nonsense that "Prosperous financial firms provide treasure and opportunity to the fortunate societies in which they cluster." The greatest period of real economic growth (mid 1940's to mid 1970's) happened when banks and the financial sector was at their WEAKEST. Any profits in finance above what they receive for their role as intermediaries between savers and borrowers is just wealth redistribution from the non-financial sector to the financial sector, and is of zero (actually negative) benefit to society. Somehow, being opposed to wealth redistribution is now portrayed as "populism" and "public anger" when it goes from the bottom to the top. The poor masses who just don't understand!
And the reason that London and New York have a comparative advantage in finance is simple. It is because their supposedly "free market" economies do not have free markets in the only market that matters, the market for money (and therefore have a free market in nothing). Interest rates are manipulated by the Fed and Bank of England and set at artificially low levels for political reasons (to create the illusion of prosperity) and to enrich the financial class who control the system. The banks then combine their cheap money with the magical money laundering machines of globalization and securitization to completely distort and destroy economies while they siphon out the wealth.
The only reason people have to not be angry is that they don't know or understand what is happening. But don't believe the propaganda, they are just trying to keep the gravy train rolling as long as possible.
Posted in: The punishment of banks: To whose benefit?
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GJDailleult
There is a lot of talk about the real problem being with the electronics, makes me think maybe Toyota weren't slow to respond as much as didn't know how. Not much point recalling cars if you don't know how to fix the problem, maybe they were just hoping it would magically go away. Because if the problem really is with the computers and electronics, that sounds like something without an easy, mechanical fix, and more like re-engineering and re-design. The survival of the company would be at stake, so they had better hope they are right and the problem is really with the pedal and the floor mat, at least they have a chance to recover from that.
Posted in: U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood says Toyota slow to respond
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GJDailleult
This makes it sound like the government deficit will cause problems in the future, when the reality is that the deficits are just a symptom of the dangerous problem that nothing was done about. Total debt in the USA is 50 trillion dollars or 350% of GDP. The private sector is maxed out and can't take on any more debt, so the government has to take it on to keep the economy from crashing down. That's the problem.
Welcome to the new Japan, although if things go as they have in Japan that might actually be a pretty good outcome. Things might end up much worse than in Japan.
Posted in: Obama's $3.8 trillion budget heading to Congress
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GJDailleult
Apparently he was right about that.
The problem is there was no possibility. Hussein was just bluffing because he was afraid of Iran, and he assumed the US and UK intelligence would figure that out. He never thought they would be stupid enough to attack him (and thought they had read George H.W. Bush's book), so he wasn't prepared for it.
Posted in: Blair fights for his legacy as he defends Iraq war
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GJDailleult
I believe the medical term for that is "hallucination". Not sure how anybody can see this lightweight corporate frontman in that way, but I do admire the mental powers that allows them to, and to share their visions in some kind of Vulcan Mindmeld style. But in the end it doesn't matter, the plantation owners own and train both horses in the race.
As for wanting to see Obama fail, a pretty clueless comment to make. Of course he is going to fail (unfortunately), as will whoever comes after him, Republican or Democrat (unfortunately). You guys really have no idea what has happened, do you. You're like Wile E. Coyote after he has run off the cliff. Keep chasing the Obamarunner guys, but DO NOT look down. In other words, pay no attention to troublemakers like michaelgtodd.
Posted in: Obama pleads for civility, cooperation in politics
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GJDailleult
The mystery here is how exactly do you mess up on the design of a gas pedal. It's not exactly new, cutting edge technology. An exploding hybrid engine I could understand, but a sticky gas pedal? Then after you mess up, how does the problem drag on for 3 years without getting fixed?
Posted in: Toyota U.S. sales halt deals blow to image, earnings
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GJDailleult
Romeo makes two great points and he is right. It's all about debt, the problem is that debt levels in the US and world economy hit unsustainable levels. Tax credits do nothing about that. And stimulus plans and spending freezes may or may not be the right thing to do on their own, but to do both makes zero sense.
Posted in: Obama prepares for first State of the Union address
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GJDailleult
Using a tragedy as an excuse to make a buck. Nice.
Posted in: 16 security cameras installed on Akihabara streets
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GJDailleult
spot on comment grafton. And great job done by Clinton to confuse the issue and avoid answering the criticism, which is of course what she was trying to do. First she plays the poor, misunderstood, "nobody appreciates all the good we do" American card. True or not true, that has nothing to do with anything. Second, she pins the "Green Zone" line on the cartoon villains of Al-Jazeera to try and discredit it, even though it is being used by all world media, including the American media. Third, she says that the criticism is coming from people who don't understand that a military response was necessary. Wrong, it is coming from people who say the balance between civilian and military was out of whack, and if it was, are asking why. And she is not going to answer that, probably because she knows the answer (actually the change in the air drop policy pretty much answers it right there). Personally, as someone who has lived almost all their life in major earthquake zones, I think those are pretty important questions to be asking.
Posted in: Clinton says critics of U.S. relief effort in Haiti misguided
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GJDailleult
So Obama should not help the middle class because the middle class is bitter about being called bitter. Very well thought out argument there!
There is no right and there is no left. There is just the top 1% siphoning off the wealth, and everybody else. Until people figure that out they will always be under assault, and wasting their time on pointless serf vs. serf battles.
Posted in: Obama plans to help a middle class 'under assault'
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GJDailleult
Amazing to see how some people can be against socialized medicine and in favor of socialized banking.
Posted in: Obama on banks: a bit pragmatic amid the populism
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GJDailleult
Wow - Warren Buffet is a major shareholder in Goldman Sachs, so is not exactly impartial. He also said derivatives are Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction, and Goldman is a leading trader of derivatives, so go figure on that one.
And nobody is talking about "killing the banks". They can continue doing what they want, just without a government guarantee on their debts and losses. Guarantees would be just for customer deposits (like they used to be), and there would be no more "we need money cause we are really, really big and if we go broke it will screw everything up". Now if any of you debt slaves could explain logically why you SHOULD be covering the gambling debts of the bankers (and are happy to do it!), I will happily take you along with me to Las Vegas. You can stand outside of the casino and be my personal ATM. Because that is what you are doing now, so you have experience in the job. But bring lots of cash.
30061005 - about the 2010 double-dip crash. First off, it may be coming anyways, the banks know it, and that is why the bonuses are so big. The time to siphon the gas is after the tank has been filled up. The US government filled the tank, but it won't be full again next year if there is a crash. Second, is the elephant in the room that nobody talks about which makes any change risky. If you take away the smoke and mirrors of finance, you might find there is nothing there anymore. The smoke and mirrors were there to hide the fact that the real economy had been trashed. Maybe better to just keep the charade going as long as possible and let somebody else deal with the mess when the house of cards collapses.
Posted in: Obama hits Wall Street; pushes for bank size limits
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GJDailleult
We will see how much of this is just rhetoric and how much is for real. But it looks like maybe Rip Van Winkle has woken from his slumber, realized he was being set up, and was going to get his head handed to him on a plate if he didn't start listening to somebody who actually knows what he is talking about (and who isn't bought and paid for by Wall Street). Volcker said last month that he was going to win in the end, and maybe he will. Also, before the usual "socialist", "big government" posts start flooding in, make sure you actually know who Paul Volcker is.
Posted in: Obama hits Wall Street; pushes for bank size limits
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GJDailleult
As a non-American, I didn't follow this election and only heard a few bits of information on the news. But what I did hear is that the winner has done some previous work in what seems to me to be to be a very non-conservative and non-Christian values field (and nobody seems to care), and the loser made a statement that appears to show a massive hole in her knowledge of baseball (in Massachusetts!!!), and American cultural history in general. It all seems a bit too weird to me, and really makes me wonder about the caliber of candidate who runs for Congress, from both parties. Wonder even more I should say.
But then maybe it is me who is weird. I don't get the "You gotta fight. For your right. To pay for private health insurance" mentality either.
Posted in: GOP's Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race in blow to Obama