At Thu, 18 Feb 1999 17:52:57 -0800, you wrote:
I dunno...could it be for the same reason that they enforce
>
>On Fri, Feb 19, 1999 at 12:09:22PM +1100, Tim Bates wrote:
>> It is interesting thing to think about this in the Japanese situation.
>>
>> Their government cannot convince them to spend their savings for love nor
>> money. It is currently earning less than .25% (yes, less than one quater
>> of a percent), and that just makes them want to save harder! Why? Becuase
>> they are saving for their old age.
>>
>> But upon what will they spend this money when they are old? The reason
>> they need to save is that there are no young people to do the work. In
>> the, mostly retired, future, there will be few goods to buy nor services
>> to purchase.
>>
>> The saved money will then suffer tremendous inflation (more money than
>> goods = higher prices for goods). No use trying to buy American or
>> Australian goods (2 countries for whom the age bulge will hit around 15
>> years later than in Japan), as no one will want to swap dollars for those
>> Yen when there is nothing in Japan to purchase.
>>
>> Tough times ahead for Japan, I think.
>
>I'm not sure this is the right forum to discuss this issue, but since you
>brought it up..
>
>I do not understand why Japanese savers do not invest more of their money
>outside of Japan (in the US or Europe for example). First of all it would
>earn a lot more interest. It would help the countries they invest in. It
>would also stimulate demand for Japanese exports, thus helping their own
>economy. And finally it would solve the problem of their savings not being
>worth anything when they retire.
>
>It just seems like a win-win solution, yet it is not adopted nor even
>promoted. Why?
Poet, Pagan, Philosopher