how the japanese calamity may further wreck our economy?

an angle that my fat lazy selfish american butts thinks about. how this affects me.

in seriousness,

the japanese owns and buys alot of our debt.

a.) they surely will need money to rebuild, won't they try to unload alot of our debt/bonds to finance it?
b.) they buy alot of our debt routinely, which goes underrated (msm hammers home china) wouldn't this calamity further cut our ability to finance our debt?
c.) in other ways, our economies are closely linked and the huge hit they are taking in the markets will hurt ours big time i the weeks to come, no?

feedback from more knowledgeable minds greatly appreciated and welcomed.


haven't seen any threads taking this angle yet, of so Mods you know what to do.

reply to post by rebeldog


Well, you can see some of this with whats happened to the Yen the past few days. Japanese insurers are cashing in on thier non Yen demoniated assets, and they are quite large, to cover thier quake liabilities.

Additionally, with just in time manufacturing as prevalent as it is, the loss, even short term, of key Japanese suppliers is going to be felt everywhere.

Back in 1993 Sumitomo, a Japanese chemical company that made encapsulation epoxy resin, suffered an accidentat one of its plants in Ebimo and since this one plant supplied the globe with something like 50% of its supply, semiconductor prices went through the roof. I am sure we will see similar shortages of specialized materials and manufactured goods.

reply to post by SirMike


Do you have any links for that story? Any idea how long the it took them to recover from the accident?

reply to post by SlyingFaucers


Which story?

reply to post by SirMike


Sorry -- Sumitomo

Originally posted by SlyingFaucers
reply to post by SirMike

 

Sorry -- Sumitomo

Here, let me google that for you.

reply to post by SirMike


Haha thanks-- I was searching for EBIMO as there were a million links for sumitomo

One big way it will effect all US people. If there is any hint of radioactivity in California, produce prices will go through the roof. As it is now a pound of lettuce costs more than a pound of chicken. I have been a produce clerk for years and know how much comes off the west coast, both US and Mexico. Florida will not be able to make up the slack on most of the crops, either.
Then the Washington apples and pears, Idaho potatoes.....all toast.
So if you like salad, celery, grapes, strawberries, apples, pears, citrus, squash, tomatoes, beans (now almost $3 a pound!)....just about anything you can grow yourself, grow yourself.
And the prices will remain high, if the growers lose income from a season they can't ship, they'll try to make up the next season. Then the other state's growers will want the same price.....ugh.
Good time to be a carnivore.

reply to post by SlyingFaucers


Np

Originally posted by stars15k
One big way it will effect all US people. If there is any hint of radioactivity in California, produce prices will go through the roof. As it is now a pound of lettuce costs more than a pound of chicken.

This is very true. With spring and planting going on a major food producer is in jeopardy. But we should remember that radiation alone is not the problem, radioactive contaminated particles are. Remember our continent survived Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl. If California gets pollution from China, don't think for a second that there wasn't particles received from those disasters.