Japan: Natural, Human, and Environment Catastrophes adding to more than 20 years of financial, political and fiscal disasters.

Mish has extensively written about the natural disaster, so I will just redirect to his posts:

• Videos, Images, News of Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
• Scramble to Avert Meltdowns; Death Toll Estimate Tops 10,000; Industries Shut Down; Japan Goes Deeper in Debt; Keynesian Stimulus Nonsense
• Earthquake Moves Japan Eight Feet, Shifting Earth's Axis; Entire Villages Vanish Under Wall of Water; Nuclear Crisis Expands to 2nd Reactor
• Shocking Tsunami Footage, Cars and Houses Swept Away Like Corks; Nuclear Reactor Explosion Video; Heartbreaking Aftermath Images

The Japanese people have been suffering for the past 20 years of the massive destruction of their wealth and productive capacity by their government's and the Bank of Japan's misguided policies. The tragic events of Kobe (earthquake) and now this tsunami are adding to the burden of so much mismanagement and corruption of political and monetary forces.

All my condolences to the many victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. As for the other human disasters produced by the BoJ and the Government, all my sympathy as well. But it can make anyone feel better about these latter two, just remember that the western civilization is following the exact same path as Japan, only 20 years later. And this time, there won't be a massive worldwide credit bubble to help with exports etc. This time, it's the Greater Depression.

Now, and apologies in advance for just talking about what the markets might or might not do in reaction to such a human and natural tragedy and disaster, a few things won't surprise me:

• Keynesian buffoons bragging about the benefits of the earthquake and tsunami: a lot of expenses and wasted money will help lift the GDP.
• Central Banks printing like mad: that's all they do, and their only solution to any problem. At some point, people will realise that spending countless numbers of hours working like mad so that they can be rewarded with little piece of green paper is not worth the effort. But the Bond market will probably block sooner rather than later the progress of massive monetization of debt by the BoJ.
• The US market finding that this is a great news: no more competition from Japan when it comes to cars, a lot of rebuilding to do, a lot of opportunities for US companies, right? So also the Nikkei has closed down with a massive 6+% decline, and that futures are currently showing about a half a percent decline, I wouldn't be surprised if the markets finished higher, on so much great news and economic progress.