2012-01-29

Japanese Chartology

Japan in a few charts:

The Stock Market is still down more 75% since the collapse of the late 1980s:


Inflation rate — or, as you can, the deflation rate, since the same period. Could the same thing happen to the US and Europe?

The 10 Year JGB, yielding between 2% and 0.5% in the past 15 years — could the same thing happen in the US and Europe?


BoJ interest rate. Japan has been in ZIRP for the past 15 years — could the same thing happen to the US and Europe?


The Government Debt-to-GDP ratio — above 200%, much much higher than any European country:


And the demographic time-bomb about to hit Japan:

Population growth — the population is actually declining:



People above 65 years old — pensioners are exploding relative to the rest of the population. They pay little to no taxes and sell their pension's investments:


People between 15 and 64 years old — declining steadily. These are the people who work, pay taxes, produce and invest in their pension funds:


People under 14 — there's no new generation waiting to take over. It's normal to see such a low birthrate. Would you think about having children if you were in a depression, having hard time meeting months ends and no knowing what tomorrow will bring?


2 comments:

Tiho said...

Yeah... the rest of the world is following Japan into a deflationary collapse with CPI at 10% according to old ways of measure it since the 70s and with commodity prices booming. *roll eyes*

pej said...

The deflation we're facing will be even worse, because there will be nowhere another inflationary boom to make up for this one.

Japan was lucky in that sense, it kept on exporting because the rest of the western world was bubbling.

It's not the case anymore, and the collapse will be that much harder.