Let me preface the following with this: Everything I have, I have made myself, due to circumstances beyond my control, I got the sum total of $0 from my parents & grandparents estates. I have so many different points of view based on the various perspectives I have held at various times in my life depending on my situation but.... My parents and grandparents had people on the books who's job was dedicated to precisely what that article refers to. In fact I was under the impression that it was sound business practice to proactively avoid paying as much tax as one can!?! I think this is the tipping point where the regulation & mainstream focus of/on the Financial System has caused the pendulum to swing too far away from zero regulation or oversight, way too far in the direction of criminalising what used to be considered "Sound Business Practice". This is the problem with playing the game with the folks that make the rules... If you're winning, they'll just go and change the rules on you (see Silver Tuesday).
Related (albeit very narrowly)...at least in China they are kind enough to denominate their domestic currency with one unit; the Renminbi which is used for day to day finance by Chinese citizens & an International Currency; the Yuan which is the unit most of us are familiar with and is their international unit of account (i.e. for all that juicy unilateral trade etc). I'm not 100% certain how it relates but do you see why your post prompted me to think of that?
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/china-brazil-strike-deal-to-ditch-dollar-for-trade BRASILIA - China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary, the Brazilian government said on Wednesday, Beijing’s latest salvo against the almighty greenback. The deal will enable China, the top rival to US economic hegemony, and Brazil, the biggest economy in Latin America, to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions directly, exchanging yuan for reais and vice versa instead of going through the dollar. “The expectation is that this will reduce costs... promote even greater bilateral trade and facilitate investment,” the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) said in a statement. China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner, with a record US$150.5 billion (S$200 billion) in bilateral trade last year. The deal, which follows a preliminary agreement in January, was announced after a high-level China-Brazil business forum in Beijing. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was originally scheduled to attend the forum as part of a high-profile China visit, but had to postpone his trip indefinitely on Sunday after he came down with pneumonia. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications BBM will execute the transactions, officials said. China has similar currency deals with Russia, Pakistan and several other countries. AFP
China completes first yuan-settled LNG trade https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/china-completes-first-yuan-settled-lng-trade The amount involved is trivial on a nation-state scale but yet another precedent of settling an energy commodity transaction in a currency other than USD by a company who has ample unfettered access to USD transaction mechanisms.
You nailed it!! To be honest, I'd never thought about the U.S. Financial System working in the same way but it does, albeit with less obvious division. Warren Mosler may have been right when everything was denominated in USD but now with unilateral trade that bypasses the USD, isn't it more important than ever that the international community has confidence that whichever nation their country is dealing with has the ability to honour their payments!? (one way or another) Perhaps this explains China & Russia's accelerated gold purchases?
Looks like the international market has finally realised not to hold more USD than they have to. The rate at which China is dumping it's US Treasury securities is interesting. Going to be interesting to see where the price of gold goes in the new world. i didn't realise Belgium was exporting that much chocolate in order to boost their holdings by $100 billion.
Makes you wonder, if the international market no longer want to absorb more US debt and domestic banks don't want to absorb more US debt, then all is left is the FED. Which means their balance sheet will need to explode. Looks like the FED will replicate the BOJ and at that point the bond market is no longer a market and redundant. Good time to watch the movie Rollover.
Japan is a unique basket case for a few reasons. Unlike the West: -It's an industrial powerhouse that develops and produces all types of high-tech products. -even with savings rates at 0.001%, it is a nation of savers, not seat-of-their pants and overindebted like Western households. -house prices have been pretty much stable since the 90s, no hockey stick graphs like in the West. - an ageing population that is in slow yet terminal decline
Yes, and what I am saying is that what's good for the goose may not be good for the gander. 3 lost decades aren't looking like a good option.
Maybe we have a different understand of "social capital" but from my understanding Japan is ahead of Australia. Also i question if Australia is still up there for Education, because in recent times our education quality has declined.
^ Social capital has to be one of the most wishy-washy stats I've ever seen. It always amazes me that groups of academics with no real world experiences are coming up with this junk. Data points are extremely inconsistent, interpretive and vague. Almost as pointless to listening to people come up with nonsense on BitChute.
Even I have to admit the whole concept of "Social Capital" sounds more than a little "Woke" (did I use that right?) I think I would prefer something like "Interpersonal Standard of Living" or something.... Social capital makes it seem like it is something that can be measured similarly to GDP & other financial yard sticks.
I spend a few years in the orient, I still study north Asia and I can tell you that the Me Too movement has gathered ground in South Korea, but not at all in Japan, same as China. The latter two are way too conservative. How many of you have lived in an ethnically homogenous nation? Racism does not exist in a homogenous nation. I think that Taiwan is the only state that has legalised gay marriage in North Asia. A lot of westerners praise Russia and CN, but have they ever spent any time in either country? Usually not, nad if they did, they'd appreciate the relative order and due process we have here.
I think it's not just conservativity that has prevented the Chinese & Japanese from joining the "Me Too" bandwagon. There's distinct cultural differences that play a greater roll that just being conservative. There's also the fact that it's only really since the introduction of Communism to China that women have been able to have a more equal roll in society & I think they would feel like their roll is tentative enough without rocking the boat by speaking out.... For any reason. In fact the stakes around speaking out for any reason in China are far too great for most to do so. In both countries, people just don't like to rock the boat.
Only 4 more days to go to see if "Operation Sand Man" will go live on Thursday 6th April 2023 late at night US time (and early next morning for most other countries). The US will be going into a national 3-day holiday weekend shutdown and a sneak attack would prevent the US government from formulating a rapid response to the situation for at least 4 calendar days, by which time it would be a "done deal" and the greatest shock to the world financial system in nearly 100 years.
The latest increase in FEDs balance sheet has correspond with a drop in bank deposits. Banks balance sheets are rotting...