For two decades, the Japanese economy has been dead as a doornail – in spite of hefty Japanese consumer savings. Why?

Field Reporter: Are they slow-moving, chief?
Sheriff McClelland: Yeah, they’re dead. They’re all messed up.
– Night of the Living Dead (1968)

In B-grade horror movie lore, Tokyo has to fend off attacks from rampaging monsters like Mothra and Godzilla. If the cinema were more true-to-life, however, Japan would be less worried about overgrown fire-breathing lizards… and more terrified of zombies instead.

In response to a recent Taipan Daily asking what brought us out of the Great Depression, a number of you responded with a good question. “What about Japan?” Or rather, “What about Japan’s extraordinary rate of consumer savings – and why hasn’t it helped?”

After putting in a massive blowoff top to cap a truly insane 1980s bull market, Japanese stocks proceeded to head lower… for the next twenty years. The Nikkei is …

by guest author: Adam Lass http://taipanpublishinggroup.com

Impressed by yesterday’s breakout? No, not really! In fact, I think you should short the pants off it.

I may as well start the column with the question everyone is asking me.

“If everything is as bad as you guys say, if the shoots are all shriveling, if banks are all screwed, if the technicals are calling for a whopping breakdown, why is the Dow breaking out?”

Are things really better all around than your erstwhile bearish correspondents have been telling you?

The simple answer is “no, it’s not.” And also, “no, they’re not.”

Facts vs. Slogans

Let’s address that second denial first.

As much as the cheerleading squad might wish to muddle the issues, the basic facts of the matter remain quite clear. Every honest economist concedes that the recession will continue through the rest of 2009 and into 2010.

We have become so numb to the word recession that many investors …

By Guest Author: Andy Richardson

My sister went house hunting last week. She likes a Taylor Wimpey PLC new build development but the plot she would want has not been started. The site representative said that Taylor Wimpey would not start to build on that particular plot until the three existing houses have been sold. They are anticipating about 18 months. So much for green shoots in the housing market. An estate agent I spoke to the other day said how fast rents are falling in my area since so many repossessions are being rented out by the receivers instead of being sold at auction. The receiver gets paid, the mortgage company gets some income and the tenant gets a home with an affordable rent.

I had a hard look at some ‘Industrials’ over the past couple of days. CHTR is a very well managed company yet its last trading announcement was …

by Laura Macavoy

High-risk can not be defined technically or officially but it is said that almost all general investments are practically high risk. And due to this reason many people believe in a strategy: higher the risk, higher the reward and then why do not follow them.

Yes perhaps for you the concept of such methodology might be exciting or some how fearful.But its a human wish or you’re able to claim psychology to believe in such thing that more you are taking hazards and more you will gain the profit. It isnt anything else than a parable as you will gain profit from the safe investment.But the people who need to earn more always follow such system, some these people take high risk with experience and rules but rest of them play blind and in virtually all the cases they ruin their lives.

Well, it doesn’t mean that …

Mining will keep economy growing Need to increase production Prices may fall but demand will be strong

 

THE mining boom will help keep Australia’s economy from falling into a hole until at least 2013, a report suggests.

Economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel said record levels of mining investment together with a ramp-up in production will insulate the economy from recession for the next five years - even with commodity prices tipped to fall.

“We didn’t really do enough investment, with the benefit of hindsight, through the 1990s to gear ourselves up for maintaining strong growth in mineral output and what we’re trying to do now is catch up,” said Adrian Hart, senior manager of BIS Shrapnel’s mining unit.

“The next five years will all be about increasing production to meet demand from China and other emerging economies . . . and once that production comes on stream that will drive weaker prices for a lot of commodities.”

The

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A fascinating discussion a few weeks ago in welling@weeden with Albert Edwards and James Montier of Société Générale is republished below with the necessary permission.

“In the cacophony that is global investment strategy research, Albert Edwards (below left) and James Montier (right) stand out as clearly distinctive voices. And not merely because of their British accents or because they’ve tended to the decidedly bearish side of the scale over the last decade or so.

“Despite long tenure in the rarified top echelons of the investment banking world, for many years with Dresdner Kleinwort and more recently at Société Générale (where they are co-heads of global cross asset strategy) both have managed to retain a natural plain-spoken bluntness.

“Also

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If our report of earlier in the week wasn’t bad enough about the British economy, more figures have come to light that suggest it’s almost in free fall, so rapid is the downturn. It’s a slump that is being repeated in more and more of Europe. The Irish economy is moving closer to recession, and now economists say that Denmark, Portugal, Italy and Spain are hovering on the brink as the European Central Bank prepares to lift rates tonight (our time) by 0.25% to 4.25%. That rate decision could very well change the dynamics of markets here, in Europe, the US and Asia. A rate of 4.25% from the ECB, compared to 2% from the US fed, has the potential to cause more damage to the US dollar, drive commodity prices even higher, especially oil, and further boost inflation. Commodity prices moved up sharply overnight with oil above $US144 a barrel, copper hitting a ...

The UK housing sector, already best by plunging demand and prices, has been hit with a potential body blow which could tip the economy into a deep recession. Taylor Wimpey, the country’s biggest home owner, has shocked the UK market and observers with the news that it has failed to agree a deal with potential new investors, forcing the stricken house builder to admit on Wednesday that it could breach banking covenants if the housing market does not recover. Coming with the news of poor sales figures for big retailer, Marks & Spencer, the Taylor Wimpey news will undermine investor confidence across the board. The company had been looking for around 500 million pounds ($A1 billion) in new capital from existing big and new shareholders, and had promised to write down the value of its land bank in Britain, Spain and other countries by around 660 million pounds (around $A1.4 billion). The write-down ...

Canada Staving off Recession; H&R Block Rebounds; Kellogg Buys Chinese Cookie Kingpin; Occidental Petroleum: New $1.1 Billion Hydrocarbon Plant; This Bud’s Not For You; Eurzone Inflation Hits 4%; Dubai Ties Into Russia’s Energy Sector; Tyson Takes a Bite Out of Indian Food Poultry Processor Canada posted 0.4% economic growth for the month of April, after falling in the red for the first three months of the year - its first negative quarter in five years. Economists warned this rebound isn’t forward looking, as U.S. demand is still low amid the subprime credit fallout and high gasoline costs, Bloomberg reported. Tax preparing leader H&R Block Inc. (HRB) said yesterday (Monday) that it posted 11% revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, a dramatic shift from its previous quarterly loss. The company benefited from the sale of its Option One ...

Bear Market, the Dow is down 20% YTD, Recession, Stagflation, $4 Gas...Help me Obi-Won Kenobi you're my only hope.  Is there any hope left on Wall Street?  As Obi-Won would say, I have a bad feeling about this, but there is hope. Jedi Mastery, Stock Mastery, you can only turn to the largest and most successful of corporate giants: Microsoft Corporation  (Public, NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric Company  (Public, NYSE:GE) These companies need no introduction and thanks to the Force, they are trading at or near 52-week lows, then again, what stock isn't these days? However, the market cap ...