Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Japan's practically giving money away for free!

The Bank of Japan lowered its target interest rate from 0.1% to a "range" of 0 to 0.1%, and announced they would buy Japanese debt (to help push rates down).

Now if you've been listening to American and European Conservatives, this is supposed to be a bad thing, allowing countries to grow debt and continue to borrow. But the thing is, stock markets around the world are loving this. DJI shot up 1.8%; the S&P up 2.09%; NASDAQ up 2.36%; FTSE up 1.44%; STOXX up 2.13%; DAX up 1.33%; CAC up 2.25%; NIKKEI up 1.47%.

And the US 10 year Treasury Bill sits at 2.50%, down from 3.24% one year ago.

So if this is a bad thing, why are traders betting on growth, and not on stagnation, as interpreted by Conservatives, from a growing federal debt?

[Things that make you go, "Hmm."]

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