I even know that a google is a 1 followed by 100 zeroes, and like most geeks knew about this decades and decades ago.
And yet... I never, ever thought I would hear about, a country—let alone Japan—having a debt of over 1-Quadrillion.
Granted that's in YEN and not US dollars. But.. in US bucks, let's see:
A Japanese government debt of ¥1.009 quadrillion is equal to US $10.44 trillion.
Holy crap.
I owe $47 to Visa and I'm late on a payment by a couple of days and I get a phone call reminding me of the privilege I am afforded in being a credit card owner and the responsibility I owe myself to ensure that payment is made on time.
Obviously Japan never had to deal with Visa.
How the fug do you get a debt of ¥1.009 quadrillion is amazing and still have people allow you to buy goods and services on credit?
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| People, ducks and countries do many crazy things with their money. |
Look... we all know that some of that debt is part of the massive clean-up required after the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and possibly the nuclear power generating facility in Fukushima... and maybe it has something to do with a crappy fall in the economy.... hey... riddle me this, Batman... but if a lot of countries around the world suffered the ignominy of a recession, depression or near bankruptcy, which countries were making money?
Anyhow... the ¥1.009 quadrillion debt as of June 30, 2013 is up from ¥991.601 trillion ($10,301,794,580,383.0) three months earlier.
In three months Japan's debt rose over 9-trillion yen ($93.5 billion)? While I might guess that some of that is due to interest added to any loans, that's still a hell of a lot of debt.
The average Joe Suzuki and Andrew Joseph have struggled mightily with debt - in my case, for these past eight years for reasons not entirely of my own making, and so I have had to restructure my finances... otherwise I would have declared bankruptcy a long time ago... Wither Japan?
Does the government actually foresee a day when it might not be in debt?
Anyone can run a country.
Bit not everyone can run it well.
Granted every single person coming up to take leadership of Japan will face a huge debt, so they already are saddled with issues... so... when is it time to actually do something to reduce and eliminate debt?
By the way... In a Wall Street Journal article posted on-line on August 9, 2013, the writer notes that: "A Finance Ministry official said it’s the first time total debt has risen above ¥1 quadrillion since the yen became Japan’s official currency in 1871."
I'm not a super-genius, or even a genius... merely a sub-genius... but I'm pretty sure that Japan has never had a ¥1-quadrillion debt ever - even before it went to the yen as its currency in 1871.
The article could simply have stated that - which actually did in the second line of the article. I think the writer was trying to mention that the YEN is not that old a currency...
Whatever. Minor bitch-slap. Hey! Maybe the Finance Ministry official is goofball who made the mistake!
Oh well... It's not like I'm not guilty of confusing writing, eh?
And finally... although I don't say it enough (or ever) - whenever I need to get a quick global exchange rate, I go to www.xe.com. It's a damn good resource.
Anyhow... what's next, Japan? One zillion?
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| Poor old Japan - the Land of the Rising Sun and debt. |
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
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