Sunday, February 17, 2013

(OT) Happy Birthday To Me, Happy Birthday To Me


Happy Birthday to Meee-eeeee

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeee

(Taking the day off. Maybe.)

For your Sunday amusement, from Bloomberg News (2/17/2013), a joke called G20 says as long as Japan doesn't publicly say it wants a cheaper yen, everything will be fine and dandy. The US and the UK cannot say much anyway, with their central banks printing like there is no tomorrow:

G-20 Signals Support for Japan Stimulus Without Yen Talk

Global finance chiefs signaled Japan has scope to keep stimulating its stagnant economy as long as policy makers cease publicly advocating a sliding yen.

The message was delivered at weekend talks of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 in Moscow. While they pledged not “to target our exchange rates for competitive purposes,” Japan wasn’t singled out for allowing the yen to drop and won backing for its push to beat deflation.

There was no censure of the Japanese attitude, which was considered a policy to develop its economy and not to intentionally devalue,” Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters after the meeting. South Korean Finance Minister Bahk Jae-Wan said “comments suggesting specific levels of foreign-exchange rates should be dealt with caution.”

The G-20’s harder line on exchange rates was adopted after the yen’s 7 percent slide against the dollar this year raised concern Japan is starting a currency war, in which countries seek to protect exports through devaluation. The agreement, hashed out at all-night talks beside the Kremlin, now leaves Japan free to try to revive its economy while putting pressure on officials to avoid explicitly targeting a cheaper yen.

That probably means the Japanese currency will continue depreciating in the near term below the 93.50 per dollar it reached at the end of last week, said Jan Dehn, London-based co- head of research at Ashmore Investment Management Ltd., which manages $71 billion.
‘Can Continue’

The G-20 is “saying there isn’t exchange rate manipulation by Japan and everything they’re doing is interpreted to be aimed at getting domestic growth going,” he said Feb. 16 by phone. “The yen can continue to weaken.”

The yen has fallen as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe campaigned for looser monetary policy to revive an economy plagued by 15 years of deflation and three recessions in the past five years. Gross domestic product shrank an annualized 0.4 percent in the last quarter, the Cabinet Office in Tokyo said on Feb. 14.

Since Abe won elections in December, the Bank of Japan has agreed to a 2 percent inflation target and to make open-ended asset purchases from 2014. The prime minister has to announce his nominees for a new central bank governor and deputies by March 9, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko said on public broadcaster NHK yesterday.

(Full farce at the link)


And who will be the most likely candidate for the Bank of Japan governorship? A career bureaucrat from the Finance Ministry. Some central bank independence.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

If anybody deserves some relax time it's you. Happy birthday!

JAnonymous said...

Yay, o tanjoubi omedetou !

I'd buy you some worthless rocks in the sea, but the Ishiharas beat me to it.

Here's my present, an easy riddle : what is that place that is less than 100km from the meteorite impact in the Urals and has seen the third worst nuclear incident in history (to date) ?

And the answer is : Mayak ! (look it up, kind of a preview of what might happen to Fukushima-ken)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!!!:)

TechDud said...

Devalue the currency? Hmmm.. what do they expect that this will do to the cost of debt-servicing?

TechDud said...

PS: Happy belated Conception Day! :)

Anonymous said...

K -- Happy Birthday! I foresee a dinner in your future, so start picking out a spot...cb

Anonymous said...

Let's help keep him blogging! If you haven't done so recently, please follow the DONATE button near the top right of the screen.
Oh and Ultraman, Happy Birthday!

a female Faust said...

click here for your birthday card -- wish i could post an image but too lazy to try to figure out how any longer. the link is fine -- i encoded it to shoehorn it into here.

Anonymous said...

For these finance ministers, it's all a game of building confidence, and from that came the term "confidence game" which led to the expression "con game" and the verb "to con."

arclight said...

many happy returns admin.. have a good one!!
Peace

Scott said...

Happy birthday. Thank you for all you do for us with the ex-skf blog.

LC Douglass said...

Happy Birthday! This is a great blog.

wren said...

Happy birthday.

Hope you had or will have a nice dinner with a nice someone and really enjoy it. Maybe you can have some nice wine, too.

Anonymous said...

virtual gift
"mint condition"

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4t5-COSS8ZI/UA8OQyHBGWI/AAAAAAAAATQ/r8kxaSTuJeA/s1600/DSC_0017.JPG

Happy Birthday!


Apolline said...

One year more !
I follow you since nearly two years...
Happy birthday, Ultraman.

Stock said...

Happy birthday from Hawaii!

Anonymous said...

Ditto to what Scott wrote! X 1,000,000

robert said...

Grattis på Födelsedagen! from Sweden, may you find the energy to keep on blogging (or write a book?)

kintaman said...

All the best to you on your birthday. Thank you for your continued efforts and keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

On behalf of the planet... happy birthday.

We're glad you're here. You've helped many, many people understand the big picture. For Japan and for the entire world, please continue!

Anonymous said...

Ex SKF: How young are you, 29? Long may you run.

Currency wars: everyone in a circle shouts, ready, aim, fire, all at the same time. Thank the Rothschilds and their Money Power for our nightmarish mess, ultimately.

Ivan said...

Happy Birthday Arivamirpal. I drink couple of toasts to you with premium Belvedere vodka. Your dedication is commendable.

Ivan said...

I drink more than couple of toasts. I think I am little bit drunk now. If you are woman I WANT TO MARRY YOU ARIVAMIRPAL!

Mike said...

Happy birthday, man, and many more!

NYUltraBuddha said...

O-tanjoobi Omedetoo from NY!

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. (Ivan, you ARE drunk, but thank you anyway.)

I exercised on my birthday for the first time in ages, it justified the Thai dinner, and as a birthday present I got Fiskar's chopping axe.

I'm now aches and pains.

Age 29 sounds good to me. Forever young.

Anonymous said...

happy birthday!

Anonymous said...

Your birthday present is coming in the donation box around 3/11/2014.
Thanks for everything many times over. No one else is out there like you, at all.

Darth 3/11

ps. lots of trouble publishing. Boxes were overlaid, faded, and not accepting a cursor.

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