"So, what's the damn problem? You just double up on the printing presses! Problem solved!"
Posted on 07/06/2012 5:53:00 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Japan's government could run out of money to fund this fiscal year's budget by the end of October, the finance minister said, as a standoff in parliament over a deficit financing bill threatens to wreak havoc with the country's finances.
The deficit financing bill, which would allow the government to sell bonds needed to fund almost half of the budget, has languished in parliament as the ruling Democratic Party tussles with opposition parties.
The finance minister pled with the two largest opposition parties to pass the bill, because without it government spending would grind to a halt, the economy would be put into jeopardy and Japan's standing among credit ratings agencies could suffer.
Japan's budget for the current fiscal year that started in April totals 90.3 trillion yen.
The deficit financing bill allows Japan to sell 38.3 trillion yen in government bonds to fund the budget. The remainder is funded by tax revenue, non-tax revenue and income from bonds earmarked for public works projects.
Government expenditure is forecast to reach 43.9 trillion yen by the end of September, Azumi said.
Assuming that the deficit financing bill does not pass, the government would have only 46.1 trillion yen on hand, Azumi said. This means the government is sure to run out of money by the end of October, he said.
The Finance Ministry could start cutting tax grants to local governments in September if there is no sign that the deficit financing bill will pass, Azumi said.
Japan already has the world's largest debt burden at nearly twice the size of its $5 trillion economy, and a breakdown in fiscal spending could increase skepticism that politicians are losing their grip on public finances.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
In the 50's they were THE economic threat ... electronics, cars and a few et cetera's.
“People that don’t want their government to just go further and further and further in debt are EVIL!!!”
(Media rule #1)
Earthquakes and Godzillla
They stopped reproducing at record levels. They haven’t even been able to keep the population numbers level. No one wants to have kids there.
(Slaps forehead even flatter than before ... )
Those other lame attempts, Mothra and et cetera's ... they just couldn't do what Godzilla can and did.
What’s their problem? Just borrow trillions of dollars like the good old us of a and call it good...
Japan’s population is aging rapidly. And the Japanese birth rate is very low, one of the lowest in the world. The day is rapidly approaching when there won’t be enough younger workers to support the old people.
Their economy is not a competitive economy. When you have no competition, you eventually become complacent. The same thing will eventually happen to China, unless it abandons the Japanese model and embraces competition.
No one took Japan seriously until the 1970s and it wasn’t a threat until the 1980s.
Poor economic policies, a population crash, a real estate crash wrecked their economy for 15 years. The earthquake, tsunami, and power disruptions have made things much worse.
Japan got rich before it grew old. Thanks to the one-child democide, China will grow old before it can grow rich. Even if the ChiComs kill old people, thier problems are just beginning.
Partially a birth dearth starting in the 1970s, so the population’s work force and now total population are declining.
It’s also partially due to their previous attempts to get out of the economic slump in the 1990s by lots of building projects funded by debt. It didn’t boost their economy, but it did generate a debt to GDP ratio close to 2-1.
What do you want to bet the Federal Reserve gets involved? Most people don’t know this, but we actually owe more money to the Japanese than the Chinese.
That tidbit from the article might also help explain some of what's wrong with Japan...
If that’s their only problem, it’s not that big of a problem. Old people might not produce as much, but they also don’t consume as much. If they don’t have income, then they just consume what they have. Where you run into problems is where young people are producing like old people, and don’t generate the savings they need to support their old age.
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