DEBT PARTY - Japan's Debt To Exceed 1 Quadrillion Yen

We wonder what Keynesian recessionary spendologist Richard Koo will say about this.  More than two decades of unabated government spending, and the end result is a $13 trillion national debt, a dead economy, and some very pissed-off young people.  Are you paying attention Krugman?

And still, they push on the string.

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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Japan's national debt is on track to exceed 1 quadrillion yen ($12.8 trillion) by the end of the fiscal year next March, with the debt rising faster than Ministry of Finance forecasts because of spending tied to aid and rebuilding from the devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this year, according to a report Monday in the Nikkei newspaper. A quadrillion is equivalent to 1,000 trillion. Tokyo had planned to boost its borrowings this fiscal year by ¥71 trillion, bringing the deficit to ¥995.92 trillion. Those estimates were outdated after the additional borrowings, the report said. Tokyo has issued ¥11.5 trillion in reconstruction bonds, lifted by ¥15 trillion its ceiling for short-term debt to fund foreign-exchange interventions, and boosted to ¥5 trillion a special government bond to compensate for damages linked to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactors, the report said.

Comments

[Concrete man]

I live in Tokyo and I can tell you they are killing us with taxes and promises of increasing taxes. They are crushing the muddled class out of existence. How can I afford to send my kids to private schools and anyway will they get jobs after they graduate from Japan's lousy universities?

[john]

Hang the F-on! Mt. Aso is about to erupt…. Seriously!


6.4 Japan Earthquake / Tambora Scale VEI-7 Volcano Alert

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/04/14/6-4-japan-earthquake-tambora-scale-vei-7-volcano-alert/

Japan has heightened monitoring on the Island of Kyushu, in the wake of a 6.4 Earthquake. Kyushu is a highly volcanic region which includes a the Aira Caldera and Mount Aso, VEI-7 volcanoes. The last major VEI-7 eruption, the eruption of Mount Tambora, is associated with the year without a Summer, a period of widespread famine and crop failure which occurred in 1816.
If, and this is a big if, this situation develops into a Tambora scale explosive eruption, the results could be devastating, both for Japan, and potentially for the entire Northern Hemisphere. Modern transportation may mitigate some of the effects, by allowing food from the Southern Hemisphere to be supplied to regions experiencing crop failures. But the resulting spike in food prices would be likely to cause severe hardship for the world’s poor.

Meanwhile our politicians pointlessly fritter away their time and our money, conducting climate witch hunts, and plotting to bankrupt affordable energy suppliers.