JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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weedkila
@teesquared
Crony capitalism rather than Capitalism, or State Capitalism if you like, is what has accelerated the destruction but ultimately it's the system of central banking which is at fault. It's why we go through booms and busts and finally a major war to reset the system. WW1 & 2 both came after major recessions.
Agreed but I'd go further and say the current system was inherently designed to fail from the start. In addition to wealth and power being transferred from the middle class to the power elites, their ultimate goal has always been global governance and you can see this with power being centralised after WW2 in institutions like the UN, IMF, WHO, International Criminal Court, World Bank etc. This is a multi-generational thing.
The current race to debase currencies is part of this theft and centralisation of power, speeded up by what you alluded to in your post. Things are not as bad as they might seem though because the elites have miscalculated and overreached. Their memes are falling apart (global warming, peak oil/water, central banking etc) and where they used to operate in relative secrecy they now have the spotlight of the internet on them.
I agree that the world needs to move to something new, preferably based on the free market, fair competition and more compassion for one another. As you say, old money beware.
Posted in: Gov't unveils series of measures to deal with strong yen
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weedkila
Slight amendment from above post.
The debt primarily comes from the central bankers creating money from thin air (counterfeiting) and then expecting the debtor (the public/government) to repay the original loans PLUS non-existent, compounding interest. You cannot put 10 coins in a box and miraculously pull out 11 coins, as the bankers expect. Therefore we should NOT be obliged to repay these debts.
Posted in: Gov't unveils series of measures to deal with strong yen
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weedkila
@teesquared
Who and by what means is this going to be paid back to the people it was borrowed from? Why did Japan need to borrow so much -- more than 200pc of GDP -- in the first place?
How much printing of money (ie: legalised counterfeiting) is enough? The financial system is already seriously distorted and in trouble.
Times like these have become times like these BECAUSE OF the very system we have now where money can be printed from nothing and interest (which was never in the financial system to begin with) is demanded by the privately owned central bankers. The amount of liquidity in the financial system used to be tied to gold and therefore controllable. Now it's not.
A commodity because it's paper? Money is given value only because governments says so (fiat) and because people have been deceived into believing their paper or digital dollars/yen have value. It's a bankers trick and the central bankers are currently 'disappearing' the value of our money through monetary inflation, ie; printing money and buying up assets on the cheap when countries have been deliberately crippled by the IMF, World Bank, economic hitmen and corrupt government officials in the pay of the Western bankers. (ie; look at Greece or Argentina and even Iceland which, fortunately saw through this scam.)
Is the bulk of the debt really to the people of those other countries or the central banks of those other countries?
Agreed.
Ever wondered why almost every country is in debt or who this debt is owed to? The only solution to this debt problem is to do away with the central banking system and Keynesian style economics. It's parasitic and is breaking the back of humanity. The debt primarily comes from the central bankers creating money from thin air (counterfeiting) and therefore we should NOT be obliged to repay it.
Posted in: Gov't unveils series of measures to deal with strong yen
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weedkila
Hmmm. Kinda strange, the typhoon just did a 'loop.'
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/typh/111524.html
Posted in: Landslide fears as typhoon churns toward Japan
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weedkila
@Nicky Washida
I've been in Japan for over 20 years and agree that the heat always carries on through September. It might be warmer in certain areas this year but it's nothing exceptional.
@zurcronium
Do us a favour and stop repeating corporate controlled media disinfo such as "This year was the hottest on the planet going back 75 years." Al Gore's "science" is junk and offensive.
Posted in: Heat wave continues across Japan
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weedkila
Sounds like a mild attempt at murder-suicide. Or perhaps in a warped kind of way she was seeking sympathy to mitigate what she did. Disregarding mental illness I can hardly think of a more selfish action.
I'm guessing she'll end up getting a slap on the hand, maybe a suspended sentence or something. There are few details but does anyone know what punishment the courts usually give out in similar cases?
Posted in: Woman arrested over death of 2-year-old daughter in Aichi
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weedkila
It would not surprise me if one day in the future it came out that the people pulling the strings behind the leaderships of Japan and China were one and the same.
Imagine if peace suddenly broke out between Japan and China; there would be less need for the arms industry, the military or people's need to rely on government and we couldn't have that.
Just seems like a big staged act/meme to me.
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weedkila
JesusLovesJapan
You say to think of the BOJ as a subsidiary of the Japanese government but you did not mention mercantilism nor the system of regulatory democracy we have where the average Japanese person's vote counts for little.
You did kind of allude to this however when you suggested that what Japan needs are politicians with the creativity and political will to take the necessary steps.
So why is it that politicians lack creativity and do not have political will to take the necessary steps?
I would suggest that the politicians do not work for the Japanese people so much as the bankers and other corporate interests through mercantilism.
So you can talk about the close relationship between the government and the BOJ but when the government fails to represent the people and while taking orders from the elite who control the government behind the scenes then this "subsidiary" arrangement is mostly irrelevant.
Posted in: High yen could 'hollow out' Japan's industrial heart: Noda
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weedkila
sfjp330
I agree, it's not about rebuilding. What I was trying to say is that at its core the financial system is essentially broken and it seems that nothing the bankers or politicians do is going to change that. Higher energy prices despite the "higher yen" (really a cheaper yen), is one sign of that.
Jeffrey Duelley Sep. 15, 2011 - 04:01AM JST
I agree with your second post. All fiat currencies including the yen are currently being debased "to the fiat currency graveyard" but judging from the comments about the high yen many people don't seem to realise that.
Just to clarify, in my last post I meant to say that banks are only legally required to keep 1/10th of total deposits in the vaults. Yet they can lend out much more than what they actually have on deposit, up to 10x I believe. Sorry if that's obvious but this leveraging, or printing money they don't have, is one of the main reasons the financial system is now on life support.
Posted in: High yen could 'hollow out' Japan's industrial heart: Noda
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weedkila
JesusLovesJapan,
I'm not sure I agree with you and the reason is that I'm looking at things from a more fundamental angle. It has nothing to do with Japan bashing. But given the huge financial problems of Europe and the US (in particular), the interconnectedness of banks and economies through globalisation I think Japan will be seriously affected from the fallout when these countries start to default.
This might be a surprise to you but the Japanese government does not print its own currency. It does have a sovereign right to do so but it doesn't. As I understand it the govt purchases money (debt) from the privately-owned BOJ through the issuance of treasury bonds. Same as in virtually every other country in the world where the central banks are fully or part owned by super wealthy banking families.
I don't know what the interest rate is on money borrowed from the BOJ (or any other central bank) but I do know that it's impossible to pay the full debt back because only the principle is lent, never the interest. Where does the interest come from to pay back the loan? You alluded to growth being necessary in your post but if you think about it, this need for non-existent interest can only come out of growth, which basically makes our financial system a gigantic pyramid scheme. This is why we always have booms and busts and, unfortunately, major wars when the system reaches it's limit. It's a bit like musical chairs, in that people always lose through bankruptcy, war and so on.
You talk about excess savings but we live under a system of fractional reserve banking. As you probably know, under fractional reserve banking all deposits are leveraged up to 10:1 meaning that there is never enough money to repay depositors if, say, the Japanese or the people of any other country living under a central bank wanted to withdraw all their money, or even only a relatively small portion (2/10s) of it at the same time. Sounds unfair to me. Perhaps when the SHTF in the West, Japanese people might get nervous and start withdrawing? Where's the money going to come from? You can say the government but that would mean yet more interest-bearing loans from the BOJ. And on it goes.
Rebuilding Tohoku is necessary of course but how much more growth do we need and how long can the current system go on for? There is a limit to fiat currencies and throughout history they have always collapsed at some point.
In addition to the above there's also the quadrillion dollar derivatives problem and as I understand it many of the major banks keep 2 sets of accounting books to keep this problem hidden as much as possible. I don't know how much the Japanese banks are involved with these derivatives but I'm guessing probably a lot.
In the old days it would have been ok but globalisation has done away with the economic and financial firewalls and virtually everyone will be affected from the fallout. We need a new system but not one that keeps people in debt slavery. And definitely not the one world currency that the power elite are pushing for.
Posted in: High yen could 'hollow out' Japan's industrial heart: Noda
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weedkila
Not if the world's financial system collapses first, which could be very soon. Then like every other fiat currency the yen may well end up being close to the value of the paper it's written on (or not written on since our money is mostly digits on a computer somewhere.)
Only compared to other currencies (paper) and not tangible things like precious metals.
Posted in: High yen could 'hollow out' Japan's industrial heart: Noda
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weedkila
@Tine Jordbræk
When central banks endlessly print digital fiat currency -- and that includes Japan's central bank -- then the currency does not rise. It just looks like it does because you're comparing paper with paper. It's important to make the distinction between a "strong" yen and a yen which is "not as weak" as other currencies because our hard earned cash is being inflated away by the central bankers.
There are other factors too which make it seem like the yen is strong such as large amounts of money being converted back to yen (carry trade). But ultimately yen, dollars, euros or whatever currency you choose is only PAPER (fiat) without any backing such as gold as it used to be.
In history ALL fiat currencies have gone the way of the dinosaurs and I believe the average life is about 30 - 40 years. (The US went off the gold standard in '71 and other countries followed). This slow motion collapse that we're seeing now was designed to fail from the start because all money was created through debt and only the principle is lent, never the interest which has to be paid back on top of the loan. It's the ultimate scam.
Posted in: Strong yen spurs Japanese consumers' purchase of U.S. goods
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weedkila
The yen is not strong. It's the weak US dollar that makes the yen look strong. All fiat currencies are being debased. In other words it's a race to the bottom and the dollar is dropping even faster than the yen. This is what happens to all ponzi schemes in the end because that is what the current system is, a ponzi scheme. All you need to do is compare the price of gold, silver or any basic commodity to any fiat currency and it should become obvious that the yen has not strengthened at all.
The financial system was destroyed in 2008 and has been propped up since then with quantitative easing (money printing) and other tricks. That's about to change, perhaps starting with the default of Greece, or one of the other southern European countries. The domino affect from that will be like Lehman Brothers on steroids.
Posted in: Strong yen spurs Japanese consumers' purchase of U.S. goods
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weedkila
Apologies, you're quite right. Still, whether it's a 10 year difference or a 28 year difference the result is the same - ie: people are being misled. That was my point
Posted in: Prince Charles says global warming more important than financial crisis
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weedkila
Yes, you're right, there are no pictures with the WWF report. But the report does say; "The latest science shows that the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice up to 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions. It is now predicted that the summer sea ice could completely disappear between 2013 and 2040 – something that hasn’t occurred in more than a million years."
http://www.panda.org/aboutwwf/whatwedo/climatechange/news/index.cfm?uNewsID=148141
It's interesting they would say such a thing when Arctic ice cover has now returned to a situation which is within normal limits for this time of year while the amount of summer ice this year was much more than in 2007.
Also, while the WWF issues these extreme warnings they also offer luxury package tours which do nothing for the environment and emissions of CO2. If they really believed man was causing the earth to warm then I don't think they would be so confident about offering luxury world-wide tours in a private jet.
For a price tag that starts at $64,950 per person, travelers will meet at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla. on April 6, 2009 and then fly to “remote corners” of the world on a “specially outfitted jet that carries just 88 passengers in business-class comfort.”
http://www.worldwildlife.org/travel/2009/Africa/WWFTripitem7467.html
You're right about their being no 1997 picture. The Telegraph has taken the 2007 photo and used it for the 1997 pic. (after doctoring it, of course.) To say it's exaggerated image is an exaggeration. It's a straight out lie.
Posted in: Prince Charles says global warming more important than financial crisis
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weedkila
In the following url you can see satellite pictures which were recently printed in a British newspaper showing Arctic ice coverage in 1997 compared to 2007. These pictures originally came from the World Wildlife Fund, an organisation of which Princes Charles' father is a patron and former president.
Climate change is 'faster and more extreme' than feared
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/3226747/Climate-change-is-faster-and-more-extreme-than-feared.html#comments
If you look carefully you will see that the 1997 picture has been doctored to show more ice than was actually there. The top half of both pictures are exactly the same (ie: no change over a 10 year period) while it can be seen that the 'ice' in the bottom half of the 1997 picture has been airbrushed in.
It's interesting that an organisation which Charles' father is closely associated with needs to resort to photoshop to sell their propaganda. But I'll give Charles the benefit of the doubt - maybe he hasn't been told that Arctic ice coverage has increased over last year. This year has seen a 31% increase in ice coverage over the previous year, or roughly the same size as Germany.
Disillusioned at 10:13 AM JST - 29th October
and War is peace, black is white, etc etc
Posted in: Prince Charles says global warming more important than financial crisis
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weedkila
Here we are - the sydney morning herald reported a couple of days ago that... "it is human carbon emissions which are to blame for the fact that the coldest August has been recorded in Australia for more than 60 years."
Big chill a symptom of climate chaos -- The freezing temperatures are proof of the urgent need to cut carbon pollution
http://news.smh.com.au/national/big-chill-a-symptom-of-climate-chaos-20080901-46yx.html
In addition to melting ice in the arctic some of the other problems global warming is responsible for are:
Acne, brothels struggle, bubonic plague, cannibalism, circumcision in decline, cockroach migration, cremation to end, crocodile sex, diarrhoea, early marriages, Earth lopsided, Earth slowing down, Earth spins faster, Earth to explode, earth upside down, fainting, lawyers' income increased, killer cornflakes, Meaching (end of the world), mammoth dung melt, Mont Blanc grows, mountain (Everest) shrinking, radars taken out, smaller brains, spiders invade Scotland, whales lose weight, whales wiped out, white Christmas dream ends.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
The Guardian even had a story the other day which said that an "oxygen crisis" might "threaten human survival" - hahaha.
It will be interesting to see how long the ms media and politicians will be able to keep flogging this dead horse.
Posted in: 19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada
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weedkila
SECOND-biggest retreat since in only 30 years! 30 years is virtually nothing in the life of the planet. Now is the time of year when Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum ice coverage, yet you would think it's some new and profound event when AP's piece is worded in such a way (loss of 82 sq kilometers/212 square kilometers) to make the situation appear dire and whip AGWers into a frenzy, (as seen above with posts like smithinjapan's.) The question should be what is the average ice loss over, say, the last 1000-2000 years and what is the GAIN since last year. We are, after all, in a cooling trend and it appears the arctic ice is starting to recover.
Arctic Sees Massive Gain in Ice Coverage: Increase twice the size of Germany: "colder weather" to blame. -- September 3, 2008
http://www.dailytech.com/Arctic+Sees+Massive+Gain+in+Ice+Coverage/article12851.htm
~~~~~
As adaydream says, 'we could shoot links back and forth to defend our side,' but that seems like an easy way out. More often than not the AGWers are afraid to look at the facts and thrive on hype. SmithinJapan talks about "...the fools who deny it being forced to come to their senses" and "argue tooth and nail against the moronic 'opinion' (for it's certainly not fact!) that what's happening COULD be natural..."
What makes you so sure these warming/cooling cycles are not natural, Smith? In your post above - and also with previous posts - you were worrying/ranting about "stronger than ever hurricanes and typhoons". To give you another perspective on the increasing hurricanes at least prior 2 posts were made with links to the world's foremost hurricane expert (William Gray) who said that increasing hurricanes had nothing to do with global warming and that it was a cyclical thing. Maybe Gray was right, maybe he was wrong. But it seems you are not even interested in considering other people's points of view, even if they're experts.
~~~~~
Small factoid: CO2 makes up only .033% of the earth's atmosphere and man's contribution to that is a small fraction. Even in the past when man's output of CO2 was increasing dramatically, such as in the post WW2 days there was at least one period when earth's temperatures went into a prolonged cooling spell (1940-1975.) How do the AGWers account for that I wonder? Or maybe it is just ignored.
As Alphaape mentioned, the sun currently has no sunspots and is between cycles. I'm not looking forward to the coming cool period which will, no doubt, be blamed on global warming. In fact, it's already started.
Global warming could stop NATURALLY for ten years,' say scientists
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-563104/Global-warming-stop-NATURALLY-years-say-scientists.html
JT: If only to balance things out a bit, it would be nice if you would occasionally add stories on such things such as the increase in ice coverage in Antarctica (rather than the shearing off of ice shelves due to natural phenomena), or the record cold spells experienced in places like China and in various other places around the planet over the past 1-2 years. Not as much fun I know but...
Moderator: We can only publish what the news agencies send us.
Posted in: 19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada
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weedkila
ColAmerica: you're right, global warming is a fact. But so is global cooling! The question is whether it is man-made or a naturally occurring phenomenon. According to satellite data and strong anecdotal evidence from around the globe since the beginning of last year the earth's climate is currently in a cooling trend, and this comes after a period of levelling out of global temperatures - the peak global temp. of the past solar cycle was in '98, which was an el nino year.
I also think that people should be more ecologically minded and that we should be more conscious of how our actions impact future generations, but I disagree that "this world will be in chaos if we don't take man made global warming seriously." The global warming issue is a big money earner, a political distraction and, unfortunately, is taking precedence over other more important ecological/enviromental issues.
The following story gives a better overview of the situation than what I can give.
http://www.libertyunbound.com/archive/2008_09/contoski-warming.html
Posted in: Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record
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weedkila
Another scare-mongering piece from the AP. The following web site keeps a track of polar ice cover and you can see that while Arctic sea ice has indeed diminished, sea ice cover in Antarctica has recently been at record levels. Because of this 'see-saw' effect GLOBAL sea ice cover has basically remained the same over the past 30 years. So does that mean 'global warming' is occurring only in the northern hemisphere, or is something else going on? Furthermore, there is nothing in the above story that suggests CO2 is the cause for any anomalies.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/
As for AP's cheap shot at pulling people's heart strings (and, eventually, your pocket book) over the apparent demise of the polar bear the following gives a more balanced picture of what's going on.
Taylor noted the estimated number of bears on the Boothia Peninsula, 1,300 kilometres west of Iqaluit, has actually increased to 1,500 animals from 900. He said environmental groups don't seem to want to take information like that into consideration when pressing their case.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2006/05/15/nor-bears-managemnet.html
Posted in: Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record