The comparison between our bubble and Japan’s seems almost flattering these days. Let’s take a look at how our economies looked going into our crisises:

  • Japan: Creditor nation, loans others money. High personal savings rate. Large manufacturing base
  • US: Debtor nation, borrows loads of money. Extremely high debt in all areas: personal, corporate, and public. Shipped most of our manufacturing capacity overseas because the dollar was strong

Add to that our unfunded medicare and social-security liabilities of $45-$99 trillion (depends on time horizon and who you listen to). Either way, it’s an inconceivable amount of money. A USA Today article from 2004 put the number at $53 trillion, which would equal $513,000 per household. That was 2004, hmmm….

Japan’s main stock market index (Nikkei 225) has plummeted from 38k in 1989, to around 8k today. But they maintained a decent standard of living. Health care wasn’t a total disaster. No major civil unrest or riots. I would almost be OK with that. But I still want our government to do better, and restore market efficiency, transparency, and honesty. Ugh.