Japan is going to blow

Here is someone else who is beginning to agree with me that Japan is the flesh eating zombie behind the door waiting to surprise us.

I have been saying for most of this year that Japan may be wild card because Japan has up till now not ever had to sell its debt on the open market, but very soon now it will have to. And when it does Japan’s borrowing costs will triple!  For anyone new here, if you should want to read some of my earlier analysis of Japan you can look here and here.

In short the argument is that up to now Japan has sold its debt to its own people via their pensions.  This has allowed them to sell as much debt as they wanted and at a third of the best market price.   But Japan’s piggy bank of savers are all tapped out.  Japan’s savers have no more savings to spend on bailing out their banks or their idiot ruling class.

So in 2011 Japan will have to compete with Germany, the rest of Europe and America.  Japan has been selling its debt at 0.5% while America pays more like 1.5%.  That is about to end and when it does the world will take notice.  It may not explode over night.  But Japan has a shed load of debt it needs to sell.  This is from the article linked to at the start of this post.

Next year Japan needs to sell about 3.2 trillion dollar’s worth of debt.  Which is less than the $4.2 Trillion the US needs to sell but as a percentage of Japan’s GDP it is a massively greater burden – 60% of their GDP.  And if they have to sell it,  as I and now others suspect they will have to, on the open bond market, not only will it glut an already turkey stuffed market, but even if they do find buyers they will have to pay triple what they have ever paid before.

Now that, to echo the past post below, is Armageddon.

Japan will not find buyers of all that.  Even those who they do find will be nervous and will push up the price not only for Japan but as collateral damage for the US as well.

The only remedy of this scenario is for the central banks to ramp up what I have argued they have been doing – buying each other’s debt with their own.  It is my belief that the central banks have been laundering each other’s debts. They buy each other’s debts with their own.  Everyone can claim they have sold their debt.  And everyone holds everyone elses’ debts as capital holdings on the grounds that what could be more AAA rated than debt from another central bank.  I recently put this idea to a very senior banker who said he thought is was depressingly possible. I hasten to add he was from the private bank sector and thus not a central banker.

The short headline is that next year the amount of debt all nations, not to even speak of their banks, are going to be trying to sell and roll over is mind boggling. It is out of control. It is too much.

The sheer volume will frighten the market and spike rates – for everyone.  At the same time growth in most real economies is stalled. Only the stock markets and currency speculation are growing and that is because they are where all our printed and borrowed money is going.  To fuel speculation on what is left of the rest of our national economies.

I am more convinced than ever that Japan is the wild card.

43 thoughts on “Japan is going to blow”

  1. Seanan Oliver Manfred esq.

    60% of the GDP of what not too long ago was the 2nd biggest economy on the planet? That's mind boggling on so many levels.

  2. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Isn't it!

    That is what saving the banks can do for you instead of clearing out the poisonous debts and starting anew and honestly.

  3. Superintendant Julia Pendry called it "an unprovoked attack".

    How is Bailing out the bankers and then loaning more money off bankers to bail out the bankers to the point that lifes services are cut by 25% and the future of teaching the poor and uneducated is put aside so the rich can stay rich. Sorry but I call that provoked Julia.

    Hope Jamie G's ok. Shame they weren't prepped with better Slogans as I see a missed live advertising slot. Only one girl has mentioned the bankers. Imagine if that's all they chanted all day with placards that read "Zombie Bank Death Squad" or "We are losing our future by bailing out the rich". I'm sure you can think of better.

    That could've been my dream day of hardcore advertising. I'm glad they voted yes to be honest, maybe my day will come then, just gotta figure out how to explain that to all the students…

    They could be my weapon of mass instruction.

    I just heard the reporter reading all the signs…

    Can you imagine? That beats Rich and me handing out leaflets any day. That could be a tipping point.

    A sign of things to come.

  4. Is Dublin the detonator of a disastrous chain reaction as Sarajevo was in 1914 with the assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand? Will the worldwide financial “adjustment” be as earth-changing as the Great War of 1914-18?

    One thing is clear; this is no more about Ireland than the assassination of Austria’s Archduke was about Serbia. Dublin is about the current unsustainable world financial order as Sarajevo was about the unsustainable balance of military power prior to WW-I.

    A massive adjustment is inevitable. Like the inevitable “Big One” we who live in Southern California all know will hit us one day, the financial “Big One” is inevitable. It may already have started in the most unlikely place, Dublin. Who would have guessed that WW-I would start in Sarajevo?

  5. "Next year Japan needs to sell about 3.2 trillion dollar's worth of debt. Which is less than the $4.2 Trillion the US needs to sell but as a percentage of Japan's GDP it is a massively greater burden – 60% of their GDP."

    In other words, Japanese govt debt has a very short time to maturity? Their deficit may be big but it surely isn't 60% of GDP.

    For comparison, UK govt debt is (say) 70% of GDP but apart from the left over stuff from QE (which is just swapping long term into short term borrowing) it is average time to maturity ten years or so, to every year they only have to refinance debts worth 7% of GDP (ignoring the extra debts they are racking up on top).

  6. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Hello Mark,

    If I understand your question then the answer, I think, is that Japan's over all rate of debt of all maturities to GDP is more like 200%. But looking at just what they need to sell next year (roll over plus newissue) it is 'only' 60%.

    Now if I have somehow got myself very confused PLEASE write back and correct me as soon as you can. I don't think I have but you never know.

  7. Hi Golem,

    Always enjoy your most enlightening blog, finally stopped lurking and signed up.

    (Back in Jan I made this comment on CiF, glad you went ahead…

    "28 January 2010 9:53AM

    GolemXlV,
    Sobering and insightful comment as ever. Thanks.
    Been meaning to ask, do you have a blog?
    Recommended (3)"

    Any chance of a talk in London?

  8. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Well hello at last dmbiz!

    I'm glad you were one of the prompters and glad you are here. I would very much like to come to London for a talk. Others have asked. If I can put a few of you in contact it might happen.

    I am hoping that once we get a couple of reviews we might start to interest more groups, who make organizing a talk much easier.

    Please keep in touch.

  9. A rather interesting day there in London today.

    I didn't think it would come to this so soon: The Treasury windows smashed, its doors battered open by people shouting 'give us back our money!' , the crowd being only just forced back by baton-wielding police.

    Now, I am thinking that the students today may have made an a major effect on how the banking crisis plays out. Without knowing it even, they may have shifted the course of history – and not only in this country.

    Why do I think this? Well, today must surely be forcing an emergency rethink by TPTB. They must be shaken. If there are riots on this scale just for an increase in student fees – which relative to the sheer scale of the banking problems are completely insignificant – then how they hell could they ever get an Ireland-type budget through?

    So, I think this is a turning point. The people have unwittingly drawn a line in the sand – and although this line is really only for a future battle which many of them haven't yet seen coming – the political classes ARE well aware of the seriousness of it ; they have had their options cut short.

    So the question is, things have changed, but how?

    What will the governments feel unable to do?

    What alternatives are more likely to happen?

  10. I don't think so ben, we muddle through its what we do, spread the pain out and hope circumstances change the course of history for the better or in other words hope something turns up.

    the vast majority dont go on marches, don't riot, don't appear on rolling news with a quick voxpop.

    Lets hope the students go back to their bedsits, if not and we get political turbulence then the bond market will wont a risk premium, we need to get our head down and pay our bills, substantially higher interest rates would kill us.

  11. David, great blog as ever & thanks for your kind words on a previous coment reply – my breathing is back to normal!

    I came across this video recently on a brief history of banking from Goldsmiths to Fiat Currency & Fractional Reserve Banking http://www.truththeory.org/money-as-debt-1/

    Towards the end, the exponential curve of 'debt' comes up.

    Does all this need for borrowing, globally, mean we're getting dangerously up that curve? If so, what then? Can it be 'adjusted' somehow by write downs or is collapse becoming inevitable?

  12. Thanks, Golem, dmbiz=MrShigemitsu on CiF, not sure what happened there.

    Your research and commitment is always most inspiring and illuminating, thank you.

  13. 24K – thanks for thinking of me!

    Just got back after a good 10 hours of kettling. I notice that THAT hasn't been covered much on the news. Hours of being told that we couldn't be released, oh no wait, we'll be letting you out soon, oh no wait, try that exit over there, oh you've tried that exit, well, it won't be long now….for hours.
    The second lot of vandalism, after the vote, would never have happened if they'd let the crowds disperse.
    A few shield charges later, we're told "You know what, Westminter Bridge is open now, we'll let you out there."
    So we go to Westminster bridge (about 3,000 people left by this stage – the rest, schoolkids etc were let out in dribs and drabs over the course of the preceeding 6 or 7 hours), wait another half an hour for them to let us on to it, walk half way over only to find…

    …another kettle. Another two hour wait in the freezing cold having had no access to food, water or toilets.

    I'm sorry if I'm babbling but this shit takes it toll on you. It's unlawful detention and it shows the utter contempt that the political class have for anyone trying to legitimately protest.

    There were maybe 100 kids who smashed windows and lit fires out of 20,000 protestors. On what planet is it fair game to lock up thousands of innocent people for hours on end to catch a few vandals?

    Of course the answer is none. Because they have no interest in catching any vandals. The point of kettling is to quell mass protest because once you've expereienced it you'll sure as hell think twice before you attempt to protest again.

  14. Fungus FitzJuggler III

    I maintain that the poor are always with us!
    In other words, it is relative. The war being fought is actually between those in TPTB who know what is happening and those in TPTB who think they know. We can only identify those after the event! I am not betting on Madoff or Lehmans!

    In fact, we seem to be able to identify winners by their associates? Dublin has the IFSC. How will all those ex-pats and Irish get along when it becomes obvious to some of them what is about to go down? Will the IRA, who started the break up of the greates empire ever seen, be able to handle it? Or are they even awake?

    This business will ultimately boil down to more than just money laundering for the "man"?

    Where are all the physical assets located?

    Who has the most paper claims on them? Analysis like this may assist your ponderings! Not to mention those genuine and still viable nuclear weapons!

    Very interesting!

  15. @JamieGriffiths
    Well done on taking a positive action.

    @Sean
    You forgot to add 'Bah! Humbug!'.

    @MrShigemitsu
    Good to know you're posting. I always enjoyed your comments on the Guardian CiF.

    Here is a ray of hope from Senator Sanders.

  16. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Mr Shigemitsu,

    I wondered about dmbiz – couldn't remember such a poster. But Mr Shigemitsu, now that's different. Can I join with RichGB is saying it is a fine morning to know you have joined us. I sincerely hope you will be posting your thoughts for us to read.

  17. Hi Jamie, sorry to hear you had such a tough time. It must be dreadful to be on the receiving end of a kettle.

    However the battle lines were drawn a month ago today, and they were drawn by the student protest movement. To expect anything other than heavy handed brutality now is pure fantasy. The political class didn't 'show contempt' for protesters a month ago and look what happened.

    Unfortunately the NUS leadership has set the terms under which all future anti-cuts demonstrations will be staged.

  18. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Hello Jamie,

    Kettling is nasty. Happened to my family on the anti runway protest a couple of years ago. I got very angry that my wife and children were kettled on a completely peaceful march full of grannies and children. I took issue with a line of police and was very nearly arrested.

    As Unclear says this is how it's going to be. But it's this or we join Sean and roll over and obligingly tuck in to every shit sandwich they prepare for us.

  19. I suppose you do David, but I doubt you have 23, (15 with young families) people depending on your business staying solvent and the wages being paid on time.

  20. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Sean.

    Quite true Sean. I have my family. Feeling responsible for a workforce must be a considerable weight to carry. I would not for a moment make light of it.

    I am just of the opinion that to knuckle under to what is beoing dmenaded of us as a nation and as earners will be worse and entail greateer pain and suffering than if we make a stand now.

    I ask you to look at Iceland versus Ireland and consider that those who say there is no alternative and we must bail out the banks and save the bonbd holders, etc are vastly over stating their case. They are, in my opinion, trying to kettle our political process and debate as thoroughly as their police force kettle those who make their protest physically.

  21. Also David (or anyone else here!), can you point me in a good direction of a cheat sheet on some of the stats involved in bail outs, TARP, QE, national debts. I've just about mastered my argument and have narrative and metaphorical flourish a plenty, but I struggle sometimes to recall some of the figures instantly. Having something with key figures in one place would be very handy. (For someone like me with a sieve brain at least!)

  22. Actually, there already is an RSS feed, but it's not very helpfully placed: go to this blog's home page, then scroll right to the bottom and you'll see a link, "Posts (Atom)".

    NB You need to be on the home page to do this. At the end of an individual blog post the link is "Post Comments (Atom)".

  23. Golem, Unclear,

    I understand that this is the way it's going to be. I was just venting last night – please forgive my rant. I won't be deterred from taking to the streets again.

    However, as I've gone off topic already: I don't agree with you Unclear, when you say that the students set the terms. I genuinely belive that the 10th November protests were deliberately under-policed so that something would 'happen' and they'd get carte blanche to reintroduce the police tactics that came under such scrutiny after the G20 and Climate Camp protests.

    Even if only the 12,500 that the police say they were expecting had turned up that day would 225 officers been sufficient to cope with the inevitable trouble makers among the crowd (remember we're talking about a significant number of hormonal teenage boys here – some kind of vandalism was a dead cert)?

    There are profesional police officers whose specialisation it is to plan for these kinds of events (e.g. Supt. Roger Gomm). I don't accept that they just 'messed up'. It was a strategic failure designed to turn public opinion against the students and win approval for brutal tactics at future protests.

    If you think that's farfetched, please remember we're talking about the people who sanction horse charges at crowds of children.

  24. A view from the other side..

    I was inside parliament yesterday (am nothing important) it was very very strange to be there with a kind of strained calm and to hear the shouting and see the smoke coming from parliament square.

    Ironically, I walked past Alistair Darling (if you're a political anorak, you get to see politicians like a kid would collect footballer stickers, obviously) and overheard a snippet of conversation:

    Very well healed couple: "and how's blah doing"
    Darling: "oh he's been made head of strategy at xyz, which is nice"

    All of this while a riot was going on outside. I thought, nice that your pal had the opportunity of a good education to get that role. Now you've given the cash to the banks, you've pulled up the ladder for a generation of those not already wealthy.

    Still, at least you and yours are doing well. That's a comfort Alistair which brings a warm feeling to so many people.

  25. Actually Jamie, I find your theory perfectly plausible.

    Where we differ is that I don't think that the student demo organisers can escape responsibility for the choices they made just because the police made it very easy for them to chooose violence. They still had a choice. Now we all have to deal with the consequences.

  26. Off topic. Sounds like a medical condition,

    "Don't mind him, he's offtopic".

    Imagine all the protesters On Topic. Sharp as razors twittering financial info to each other.

    RBS buy to let derivatives with factored in 10% price drop.

    I assume that'll be student accomodation.

  27. Golem, is there any potential for the spinning off of these 300% larger student loans into derivatives – or does this already happen?

    And could that be a factor behind the impetus behind them?

    Or is £6.3bn a year too small a figure for the market to bother with?

  28. Hi Golem — nice to see MrShigemitsu here, very coincidentally we met at 2am friday on the Untrusted blog — refugees banned from Guardian CiF, and other fellow spirits .

    My 83yr old Ma in Far North NZ isn't going to lend your book till finished, if then , " beautifully written".

    My 73yr old former investment manager friend in NSW is equally impressed. Moving over to a Credit Union …

    The temperature is steadily rising .

    An acquaintance in the pub tonight was incandescentally angry about her phone line . No longer public and the bloody thing doesn't do internet, needed for work, and they just don't fix it .

    When it was public,they did.

    I don't make speeches in the pub, but tonight my extremely simplified explanation of derivatives was demanded.

    Don't walk under any ladders mate …
    frog2

  29. ello all

    been reading for a while. Economic dumbo I'm afraid but very aware of social damage and the ever worsening conditions we can expect.

    I am wondering which particular retail sectors will suffer the most as families cut back. The increasing utilities prices are also going to take money out of some sectors to help pay the bills.

  30. @ Mr Shigemitsu
    I came across this breakdown of the U.S.Bond Market on Wikipedia :

    "At the end of 2004, the larger sectors of this market are credit card-backed securities (21 percent), home-equity backed securities (25 percent), automobile-backed securities (13 percent), and collateralized debt obligations (15 percent). Among the other market segments are student loan-backed securities (6 percent), equipment leases (4 percent), manufactured housing (2 percent), small business loans, and aircraft leases. More recently an attempt to securitise excess energy generated by renewable energy resources is being attempted by Joseph Brant Arseneau and his team."

    It would be good to see a more up to date breakdown of this.

    it seems the answer to your question re potential $ securitization of student debts…"And could that be a factor behind the impetus behind them?" is " yes".

    @ Golem – another fascinating post – thanks.

    I would like to know more about the relationship between sovereign debt and bond market debt, i.e. to what extent are soveriegn debts being used as guarantor or capital for loans inside the banks /private securities markets ? Is the Central Bank debt laundering circle you describe not the private banks greatest asset ? Doesn't Bank Bailout money partly serve to guarantee value of soveriegn bonds?

    It seems like the relation of sovereign ( public) debt to bank (private) debt is why Governments force themselves (or are forced by the IMF/central banks ) to take charge of the rotten banks rather than let them go to the wall- – which of course is simply another statement of that relation.
    I mean that's the argument against, isn't it ? That X country would go down the pan if the banks werent bailed out.

    Who owes what to who is the puzzling and complicated accounting procedure for who owns what. That Irish Bondholders list, for instance was a beautifully simple snapshot of a nations wealth being moved overseas into private hands, and replaced by sovereign borrowing.
    When soveriegnty plays second fiddle to the banks, as in Ireland recently, then, as you argued in earlier posts,a government can no longer be said to represent ( let alone to be acting in the interests of) its people.

    I always took caution r.e.sovereignty as to be why Japan borrowed from itself / ran this 200% GDP debt rate ….that they prefer self sufficiency or hari kiri to selling their own country to the highest bidder like the rest of the world….

    Beyond that, what your post above seems to imply is that the Japanese 200% of GDP is the REAL underlying rate of debt that most other developed countries run at, and that the debt laundering circle between central banks that you describe exists to disguise this, by fixing the figures.

  31. Hi Andrew

    I came across this page, which should provide the data you need by merging a number of spreadsheets together: click here.

    While looking around for this information I mutated in to a wild-eyed archivist with rampant RSI and an insatiable urge to open up all the boxes and strew their contents around. Below is a list of the more interesting artifacts:

    Links to links to links: HERE
    Various Bank of England statistics: HERE
    The UK 'public ledger': HERE
    Investment by insurance companies in the UK: HERE
    The future of public debt: HERE
    Stats on the London derivatives market: HERE
    Stats on European derivatives: HERE
    Report on world bond market (with lots of graphs): HERE
    Report on derivatives (with more graphs): HERE
    Report on European securitisation: HERE
    Report on debt reduction (with pictures): HERE
    Annual review of the UK Debt Management Office: HERE
    Statistical mania (yawn!): HERE
    This one is for people who understand integral calculus (probably the only part of economics that requires a PhD): HERE

    There is more data on the UK than most people realise; it's just not in a form that is easily understood outside the financial sector.

  32. princesschipchops

    jamie – Sorry about what you went through. Some news channels did report what was happening – and the beeb HAD to report the charge because their reporter was nearly knocked over by it – I think his words were ''I've never seen anything like that before''. Hhhmm never reported the miners strike or any of the other many demos over the years then! Good luck with further demos.

    Leni – good to see you!

    Sean – with all due respect your business is obviously not a huge biz – it is an SME right? And if so you are being totally screwed by the system you support? If the banks are bailed out but then not made to lend to SME's you guys get an important source of funding cut off. If big businesses are just allowed to build up monopoly's and eat up the little guys that is bad for you? If Phillip Green and others don't pay taxes on what they earn in the UK but you and other SME's have to – you are not operating in a level playing field.

    I cannot understand for the life of me anyone who is not the CEO of a huge international corporation, a banker, trader, or one of their lickspittles in place in politics and the media – being in favour of the current status quo.

    I get that you don't want things to be so bad your business collapses and it must be a big worry. My other half is a manager in an SME and it has been a really tough couple of years. However that doesn't change the fact that the way we are heading is for a crisis of even bigger proportions if we don't stop flailing around trying to save banks that are literally finished as a viable business, and letting big businesses act in a fraudulent and illegal manner much of the time.

    If you are a capitalist you should be just as against the current state of affairs and bank bailouts as a socialist.

    Friedman himself was against big business bail outs and tax systems that let big business get away with not paying taxes or paying less than smaller enterprises. I do not agree with Friedmanite economics but most people in power only apply the bits of what he preaches that they like (small state, low taxes etc) and don't apply the bits they don't like (no government support for the private sector, no special treatment for big corps etc). He would for example have been against the extension of the Bush tax cuts saying that tax cuts when you are in deficit are a tax rise on your children. Half assed monetarism has bought us to the edge. I don't think putting our foot on the peddle now and carrying on with it will do anything other than drive us over the cliff.

  33. Some more interesting links –

    This one (click here) has a lot of information on the mortgage frauds in the US. A crucial point made in the videos is that even if Congress retrospectively legalises the incomplete mortgage paperwork and overlooks the missing promissory notes, they cannot ratify the fake AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities. These simply will not go away. Bankers may not be jailed, but they will be pursued through the courts by hundreds of companies that bought up the CDO and CDS packages.

    Not to be missed out – HERE – is one for JP Morgan.

    This one I've included because it made me laugh: greedy bastards.com

  34. So glad Golem you directed readers back to your February Post Things to Watch..as background to this current post….

    as I got round to reading the comments there and your and Ian's and Chris's interchange on what are the possibilities of Change that may come out of all this situation. It seems to me that your more hopeful view of how cultural revolution is achieved is seeming by the end of the year a little closer.
    Its not just the student protests or the inspired UKUncut actions against the tax avoiders but the little item I noticed today in the Social Attitudes annual Report… despite the depressing headline in the Guardian ….
    At the end is the timely fact that in 1983 90% of people believed banks were well run. it is now down to 19%! So 81% dont. that is a major fall alright. Just think how much unthinking trust used to be given to the Financial Industry. Perhaps after all that has happened this is only to be expected but I think it has also created a seedbed on which much more radical thinking and questioning will be able to take hold. Something has shifted.

  35. Golem XIV - Thoughts

    Wirplit,

    I am glad you too feel something has shifted. Something deep and general I would say. One of those buried butn techtonic changes that cannot be put back. I am more hopeful now than I have even been, that real change, radical change is possible. And we are standing at its centre.

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