It is on. Japan and Germany have gotten hammered on the back of the relative strength of their currency valuations - even with the pop in the U.S.D. versus the euro recently. BOJ announced major stimulative measures yesterday officially to 'fight deflation,' but more appropriately designed to reverse the dramatic recent strengthening of the yen, which has absolutely murdered their exports (so much so that Toyota and Nissan have laid of workers in JAPAN). Look for China, Korea and other export-reliant countries (especially those with more than 20% of their exports flowing to the U.S.) to combat what they perceive as an unprecedented stimulative policy by the U.S. whereby the financial system is being inundated with greenbacks. This will be a great new source of tension between major trading partners, and a challenge to the new 'free trade' pacts going forward (and maybe existing ones).
Japanese has higher saving rate, strong Yen make them even more wealthier, so expecting lot more Japanese tourist in coming year.
I believe they had a +15% savingsrate before there bubble popped and they were able to use their savings as a cushion all the way down to a 2% savingsrate. The US have a negative savingsrate BEFORE their bubble popped.:eek:
Americans are broke Currencies at some point are a reflection of the economy and government Which backs them In which case when it comes to a race to the bottom we got everyone beat because we started at the finish line Very soon sound economies with real wealth will adjust to a world without the american consumer and they will be better off for it