via NYT
>
Source:
When Consumers Cut Back: A Lesson From Japan
HIROKO TABUCHI
NYT, February 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/business/worldbusiness/22japan.html
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
"Dollar depreciation leads to higher inflation and ultimately forces foreign creditors to question their rationale and indeed their sanity for continuing purchases of U.S. Treasuries." -Bill Gross
Signs continue that European markets are getting tired. The Spanish and Italian stock markets, big beneficiaries of the sharp decline in their bond yields over the past few months are falling to the lowest since Feb 1. The European bank index is at a 1 1/2 week low after earnings reports from Commerzbank and Credit Ag (RBS bouncing although reporting weaker than expected earnings) were disappointing. This market action is in spite of the German IFO business confidence figure which rose to a 7 month high coming in a touch above expectations and Italian consumer confidence which bounced more than...
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February 22nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Average vs median. Income inequality in Japan among the middle class is skyrocketing but you wouldn’t know it from that chart. Guess the NYT didn’t want to scare folks.
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
looks just like the US doesn’t it?
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
The scales on these graphs are different. The percentage drop in spending is less than the percentage drop in income, although you wouldn’t know if based on the first glance at the graph. The drop in the savings rate is very dramatic.
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 pm
If the NYT is going to show Average Household Spending it needs to show Average Household Income. Otherwise it looks like Average Income in 1985 was $35,000 and Average Spending was $36,000 ( = $3000 x 12 months). But somehow the savings rate was 15%.