I misquoted; it should be 5 major dealers or players; Fed, BoJ, BoE, EU(Germany) and Switzerland for BIS, which has many board members.
The major difference, and it can't be understated, is that our destiny is in other country's hands. Why else would you have the Secretary of State go and beg for money? You are right in that maybe nothing will be different than Japan's problem for the US but if the bonds are not purchased then the fed will just print the difference.
You're not getting my point. Think of it this way. You have been relatively conservative, lived modestly and saved $1000 (although you have been saving less recently), but then your shop closes and you get fired. In the meantime, the town you live in has been circling the drain and you know there will be no job for you in the foreseeable future. You need to pay living expenses of $100/month. Now you're saying that everything is just peachy, 'cause you got $1000 in savings. I disagree... The point I am making is that Japan has large structural issues (labor force is shrinking again, demographics etc), huge fiscal difficulties (according to MOF, 24.3% of public sector account goes to debt servicing and 26.2% to social security) and the household situation is not improving. Moreover, Japan has a totally dysfunctional political system, which will not produce another Koizumi-like PM for a while, so there's no hope for meaningful reform. And all this is happening against a background of a global economic slowdown. My view is that Japan is REALLY screwed. Moreover, the fact that BOJ owns lots of debt is completely irrelevant and I don't understand why you would even bring it up. Basically, they borrowed a whole lot to buy all this foreign debt. A real recipe for success it ain't.