“As the rhetoric between Pyongyang and Seoul escalates, The Agenda looks at whether or not tensions on the Korean peninsula could spill into war. Syndicated columnist Eric Margolis joins Steve Paikin for his perspective.”
http://ww3.tvo.org/video/190151/eric-margolis-tensions-korean-peninsula
“Fujimaki said he recently bought put options for Japanese government bonds of various maturities, without elaborating. He continues to hold real estate in Japan and options granting the right to sell the yen against the greenback expiring in less than five years. He also holds assets in U.S. dollars and currencies of other developed nations. ‘Japan’s finance is sinking into the ocean,’ Fujimaki said. ‘There’s no escape from a market crash in the future when you have such enormous debt. By expanding the monetary base to 270 trillion yen, the BOJ is making a huge bet which I think it will ultimately lose,’ Fujimaki said in an interview in Tokyo on April 11.”
“The BOJ will double the monetary base by purchasing about 7.5 trillion yen of Japanese government bonds per month. It plans to extend the average maturity of its portfolio from three to seven years. And it will continue such actions until it achieves its inflation target. In other words, the BOJ is doing exactly what the Federal Reserve is doing. And for this it gets a warning from the U.S. Treasury ‘to refrain from competitive devaluation and targeting its exchange rate for competitive purposes’? The message came in the Treasury’s semiannual report on international exchange rates, released on April 12.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-15/u-s-treasury-to-boj-do-as-we-say-not-as-we-do.html
“In an article yesterday we suggested that the reason Japan was embarking on a massive attempt at Keynesian-style stimulation was to promote the efficacy of Keynesian economic ‘cures.’ But there is another possibility as well. Perhaps the idea is to start a currency war aimed at least in part at China. Japan is a longtime ally of the US, which defeated it in World War II. It is certainly possible that Japan has allied itself with the US to serve Anglo-American interests in this regard. It is indeed possible to hypothesize that Japan’s current policy is intended to confront China and therefore is being used as a monetary ‘weapon of war.'”
http://www.thedailybell.com/28963/Is-Japans-Devaluation-an-Attack-on-China
“Although at the official level, ignoring North Korean blustering, while taking adequate measures to defend the United States—not South Korea—from the future limited threat that North Korea might pose, the U.S. government should not discourage or have disdain for visits by private citizens, such as Dennis Rodman. These private visits help break the isolation that the Kim regime needs to survive and that U.S. government regularly haplessly provides with economic sanctions and counter bluster. Let’s show the publicity-hungry Kim Jong-un that his words and actions are a lot less important to the United States than he thinks.”
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=3595
“First, central bank money-printing has lost its impact on the markets. Second, austerity measures in Europe and the United States are also overpowering the inflationary impact of money-printing. Third, and most importantly in my view, the Cyprus confiscation of uninsured depositor money has completely turned the world upside down. Money is no longer safe in a bank in Europe. That, in turn, is causing hundreds of billions of dollars to essentially go into hiding. But not in gold, which is subject to confiscation, real or imagined. Fourth, Japan’s new aggressive policy to devalue its currency is also not bullish for gold.”
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/urgent-historic-gold-crash-what-to-expect-next-51718
Fourth, Japan’s new aggressive policy to devalue its currency is also not bullish for gold.
“Of countries that have to make something, like the Swiss – the Swiss have got a heap of granite with icing on the top of it and yet they’re one of the richest countries in the world. It’s the people that do this stuff. It’s the people and the leadership and if they believe in something they do it, and the Germans, too. They believe in hard work but what’s more, they believe that the hard work of today’s citizens should be kept intact so that those hard working people, when they retire, should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The Anglo-Americans say the hell with the future, the hell with children, the hell with grandchildren. We want that money now.”
http://www.thedailybell.com/28980/Anthony-Wile-John-Browne-Explains-The-Great-Game
“Privately owned daily newspapers hit Myanmar’s streets for the first time in decades on Monday under new freedoms that represent a revolution for a media shackled under military rule. Four Burmese-language titles — The Voice, The Golden Fresh Land, The Union and The Standard Time — made the transition from weekly as new rules came into effect that swept away state media’s long monopoly on daily printing. The country’s military rulers seized control of private daily papers in 1964, according to veteran journalist Thiha Saw of Open News weekly.”
“US online retail giant Amazon said Tuesday it had asked New Delhi to consider relaxing a law that stops its Indian subsidiary from selling directly to customers. The topic was raised when Paul Misener, Amazon’s global vice president, met Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma in New Delhi. Last year the Indian government eased legislation to allow foreign retailers such as US supermarket giant Wal-Mart to set up shop in India and sell directly to Indian consumers but online retailers were left out.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/12/amazon-asks-for-laxer-online-shopping-rules-in-india/
“At the station operated by Taiwan’s largest charity group Tzu Chi Foundation, hundreds of volunteers help sort and recycle plastic waste along with used glass bottles and electronic appliances. Tzu Chi runs 5,400 recycling stations across Taiwan with the help of more than 76,000 volunteers and has distributed more than 460,000 blankets made from plastic bottles since 2007 for relief use at home and abroad. For the volunteers in charge of crushing the plastic bottles, who are from two nearby nursing homes for the mentally ill, the recycling work has also become part of their therapy.”