The American economy: Still Strongest in the World. U-S-A! U-S-A!

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

It's hard to believe but we are still the strongest player around. As bad as our economy gets it will be worse for Europe and the Pacific rim, and let's not even talk about the former USSR. This is one of the reasons we need to over-do our economic interventions, even absurdly so. Our task, asked for or not, is to lead GLOBAL recovery because we cannot prosper while the world goes to hell any more than they can prosper while we go to hell.

JAPAN faced "the worst economic crisis of the postwar period", Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said yesterday after the national economy shrank 3.3 per cent in real terms in the final three months of last year.

The fourth-quarter slump, 12.7 per cent annualised, is the steepest since the first "oil shock" in March 1974, and raises fears of the world's second largest national economy falling into what by some measures looks more like depression than recession.

Mr Yosano yesterday flagged the Government would rush out a third stimulus package since September 1, with talk in the markets yesterday of another Y20 trillion (about $335 billion) of new expenditure.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25064376-643,00.html

_______________________

Ever handy world GDP list, offered to show that the proposed third Japanese stimulus since September mentioned in the article would be, by itself, equal to one trillion dollars here. (335 billion in a 4.8 trillion economy is a lot!)

2008 List by the CIA World Factbook
(European Union 18,930,000)
1 United States 14,330,000
2 Japan 4,844,000
3 China (PRC) 4,222,000
4 Germany 3,818,000

[Zynx]

1. South Korea, Singapore, etc are also really taking a hit.

China will most likely see some quarters that will be far below what they have been used to.

You're absolutely right. The rates of decline in output in nearly every other place in the world are far worse. Canada is a rare exception.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. I heard Japan Q4 was -3.3% and went, "not so bad" then heard that was real, not annualized!

12.7%, even for a quarter, is an attention getter.

[Zynx]

4. South Korea was something similar where they report it as Q/Q and not annualized.

Annualized it was something like -20%.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Moral: Recessions don't happen in vacuo.

[Eryemil]

5. There really is no god. The US created this mess and it looks like it'll be the least affected

If the EU splinters because of this crisis I'll blame America 'till the day I die. Ok, I might just be a bit paranoid but it is a horrifying thought.
The problems in Eastern Europe are so very worrying.

We remain astonishingly untouched here in Canada so far.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. If we aren't buying it sucks for everyone

[Eryemil]

7. I know, but the irony's a bitter pill

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. what scenarios do you see for the EU coming apart? It's not something I've given much thought to

[Zynx]

9. The concern is that since the ECB controls monetary policy, some countries,

particularly smaller ones, feel that they are not in charge of their own economic destinies. If a gulf emerges in economic performance within the EU, some countries are going to be pretty pissed off.

[Zynx]

10. On the other hand, I could say that those countries were growing faster than

we were because of our consumption of their goods which does little for us and a lot for them. Therefor, when we suffer, it makes sense that they do.