WE'RE STILL TURNING JAPANESE

BANZAI7 NEWS--How much debt can an industrialized country carry before it ravages its economy and ts

The question looms large in the United States, as a surging budget deficit pushes government debt to almost 50 percent of gross domestic product, and in Europe and developing Asian nations like India. But it looms even larger in Japan.

Gross public debt mushroomed during years of stimulus spending on expensive dams and roads, and this year it passed 187 percent of Japan’s economy.

That debt could soon reach twice the size of the $5 trillion economy — by far the highest debt-to-G.D.P. ratio in recent memory — and the biggest, in real terms, the world has seen. Japan’s outstanding debt is as big as the economies of Britain, France and Germany combined.

Now, a new government that promises an ambitious social agenda is set to issue more debt this year than Japan has ever issued in a single year.

(Source NYT)

“The U.S. economy will deteriorate into 2011 as the effects of excess consumption and the financial bubble linger,” said Daisuke Uno at Sumitomo Mitsui, a unit of Japan’s third- biggest bank. “The dollar’s fall won’t stop until there’s a change to the global currency system.”

No wonder the Dollar can't gain on the yen. We keep doing what they do.