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Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by paulpauper on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @07:06PM (#18234057)
Japan has run much bigger deficits relative to GDP for a long time and yet inflation and bond yields are rock-bottom.
Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by NTDF9 on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @07:18PM (#18234135)
But their GDP hasn't been growing much either. They've been fighting deflation (or non-wage inflation) for a long long time.

I'm not sure a deflation is good for us.

Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by tanderson92 on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @07:31PM (#18234212)
It doesn't follow that the deflation has been due to the deficit.
Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by NTDF9 on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @08:08PM (#18234404)
> It doesn't follow that the deflation has been due to the deficit.

It's obvious to the economic world. That's the reason BOJ keeps buying Japanese stocks and bonds (to keep asset prices high when others have stopped buying) and Japanese people have stopped investing in Nikkei (because holding cash == increasing value)

That's also the reason Japan (notoriously closed society) is admitting defeat and letting in immigrants to work.

Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by tanderson92 on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @08:13PM (#18234427)
It’s convenient for deficit hawks that they can simultaneously blame deficits for deflation in Japan and fear monger about hyperinflation in the US.

Your comment also doesn’t link the deficit to the deflation, only speculates on the effects of and policy response to that deflation.

Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by NTDF9 on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @01:45AM (#18236408)
> It’s convenient for deficit hawks that they can simultaneously blame deficits for deflation in Japan and fear monger about hyperinflation in the US.

You need to understand the sequence of events in Japan. They had a massive debt problem (national, local and corporate). That triggered a recession causing asset prices to drop. The caused deflation.

The only way to not have asset prices drop and some inflation was printing money. So they printed. Their population and economic investment dropped further while they kept printing money (two opposite pulls). This kept them going until today. It's a wonder they didn't hyperinflate. They pulled it off. But the expense of this is no GDP growth. Infact, whatever GDP growth they have is because of BOJ selling assets to BOJ who sells assets to BOJ. It's a mirage.

So, yeah, their real economic activity (thus, investments, wages, innovation) has dropped from zero to negative because for the average individual, holding money = gold!

Re:U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time i... by soperj on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @07:18PM (#18234139)
Don't know why they don't try increasing minimum wage there, since everyone seems to think that leads to inflation.