The following presentation, in slide show view with excellent charts from Bienville Capital, provides another visual look at the some of the looming issues in Japan. One of the best charts in the presentation shows that Japan is currently involved in printing money to purchase numerous asset classes, not just the government and mortgage bond arena that the Fed currently plays in (of course most of that new money has then found its way into stocks even if the Fed is not directly buying). The Fed has the ability to enter the stock market and Bernanke even discussed doing so as one of the final strategies in his now famous 2002 "helicopter" speech, which he has followed exactly thus far into our current depression.
A portion of the Bienville Capital presentation looks at the Bank Of Japan targeting negative returns on bonds as a positive as it will "shift" money into risk assets, as seen recently with the current US stock market insanity. Click on the bottom right corner of the slide show to bring it full screen, which will help the viewing.
For my thoughts on both Japan and the US stock market see the complete 2013 Outlook.
