[Steven W.]

America is not Japan

[sarcasm]

What profound insight. Do you have any other words of wisdom?

[solzhenitsyn]

America is not Japan.

Yup, that is a geopolitical fact. But we have our very own real estate bubble developing, at least in certain urban markets. And instead of the huge savings that have cushioned Japan's consumers, American consumers have a mountain of debt. I doubt that it would take near as much of a push in this country to tip us into deflation.

[Vigilanteman]

Deflation is slowly starting to be talked about here. The gorilla which nobody wants to talk about is China. For years, Japan fought to keep industry at home or at least in allied countries such as Malaysia and Thailand and limit China to production, not technology transfer. That stance was admirable.

But the stampede of non-Japanese multinationals to not only produce in China but transfer their technology as well (workers in their home countries be damned) left Japanese multinationals with the choice of screwing their own workers and following suit or falling further behind in the race to drive down costs.

In the end, they decided to go for reduced costs big time, while focusing job reductions on the 45-60 year age group who drew the highest salaries.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country apes America in Wal-Martization and China earns more capital to build up a military to dominate Asia. Ain't internationalism grand?

[Starwind]

America is not Japan

And the S&P 500 Index is not a SPDR. Maybe you should stick to geography - the different shapes seem help you.

[hove]

"America is not Japan"

You are correct. The coming deflation/depression will be much harder on America...a severely debt ridden economy. There will be no way for America to escape her fate. Any attempt by the FED will result in a period of hyper-inflation....to be followed by the inevitable deflation/depression. Americans should be warned...and prepare.