Sunday 31 May 2009

Japanese occupation currency note

A promise is a promise...
...but will the present Japanese government honour it?
Can I hold them to this promise?

4 comments:

stephen said...

The US dollar will be heading in that direction too, what with the US treasury printing money to fund their recovery (sic).

Maxim said...

If they do honour ..... huh , i'll be a multi millionaire .... my grandpa leaves me a whole gunny sack of them .....

vinnan said...

There are many differences between the US dollar today and the Japanese occupation currency. The most important is that the currency of today are mostly electronic money. If I am not mistaken all the US paper currency today constitutes less than 1% of the US currency circulating around the world. In other words there is no physical printing of US dollars to pay for what the US buys.

Secondly, whether we like it or not the US is still the world's leader in cutting edge technology. Intel, AMD, Monsanto have no equals. Another big difference the US is not an occupied country bent to the will of its conqueror. The demise of the Yanks have been greatly exaggerated.

stephen said...

You have an overly simplistic view of the situation we are facing.While i agree that the US is a benign superpower, it doesn't detract from the fact that they are now printing money to dig themselves out of the recession to the tune of 1.4trillion.This is on top of the ever increasing national debt of several trillions.A recent study shows that the excesses of the last few years due to creative derivatives has left a tangled web of something like a US300 trillion left to be resolved! You must understand that money supply is tied to the physical aspect of the currency too.There is an article in the economist pertaining to this and has created angst among countries holding the currency in their reserves particulary the chinese who have been complaining quite vocally over the wanton printing of money by the US.
The fact that the US is under credit watch underpins this fact.There are parallels to be drawn albeit under different circumstances as to the what the japs did and what is happening now.
Your point of the US leading in IT is valid but the erosion of its manufacturing base has a greater significance to what ails the country today.