[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[InterceptPoint]

Freepers, you really ought to read this article. Japan is in trouble and it is the same sort of trouble that we are heading for if we don’t curb the spending in Washington very soon.

[PeterPrinciple]

“Roads and bridges are attractive, but they create jobs only during construction,” said Shunji Nakamura, chief of the city’s industrial policy section. “You need projects with good jobs that will last through a bad economy.”

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The major point of the “Wealth of Nations” is that when you spent you money, it created more wealth. The first road projects in our country created many jobs and wealth.

What are the projects that will create wealth now?

[nascarnation]

Twenty years ago, a lot of economists had them pegged to take over the world. Shows how things can change in a (relative) hurry.

[tiki]

What countries are growing, those who have retained their production capabilities. America has regulated most producers out of existence and the productivity has moved overseas. Until we get our mines and our factories and our farms and mills going again we will remain broke.

In my town the big stimulus job was the paving of a street that will never have a higher than 25mph speed limit, it was fine as it was. I can’t believe that it has taken over 6 months to rip out and repave about a mile of street.

I remember about 25 years ago we got a government grant to build an animal barn at the fairgrounds. The grant was meant to create a few jobs. It had all kinds of clauses. One was a prevailing wages clause which was 3 times what the real prevailing wage was in our town. We also had to accept the low bid and then the guy who won it did every bit of it himself and didn’t hire one person to help him.

Then we still had money to build some bathrooms, we ran the figures and we could have done it for around 15K but after all the red tape, because there could be no donated labor, they cost 40K.

This is government spending, it lined the pocket of one man who was capable of meeting all the stringent government regulations when the grant was originally supposed to create jobs. I’m not putting down the guy who took advantage but the system that made it possible.

[GOPJ]

There has been only one reason that investors have accepted virtually no interest income on Japanese bonds. The relentless strength of the Japanese Yen has made up for the lack of interest. The Yen has appreciated 100% versus the USD since 1995. The Yen has stayed strong despite a weak economy because Japan has run a massive trade surplus for decades. That unsustainable trend is also coming to an end. China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and other developing Asian countries can produce the crap that Americans desire much cheaper than Japan. The Japanese trade surplus has begun to plummet. The Japanese politicians are flailing about trying to revive their exports. Yesterday’s intervention in the currency markets to weaken the Yen is a sign of desperation. It will fail. Every Central Bank in the world is trying to devalue their way to prosperity.

The center isn't going to hold - it's just a question of time.