Back in early 2013, in
article after
article, we warned that Abenomics would be an epic disaster. Actually we take that back: we said it would be an epic disaster for
most of Japan's citizens. A select very few, just like in the US, would benefit greatly from the unprecedented asset reflation to follow the massive currency devaluation that the prime minister had just launched.
Over a year later, we find that we were yet again accurate in our forecast.
Meet Mieko Tatsunami, a 70 year old retired kimono dresser from Tokyo. Unlike the scores of paid actors ordered to pitch Abenomics and to spread the gospel of rising asset prices, Mieko shares a most rare commodity in this day of pervasive propaganda: the truth.
"
The price of everything we eat on a daily basis is going up," Tatsunami, 70, a retired kimono dresser, said while shopping in Tokyo's Sugamo area. "
I'm making do by halving the amount of meat I serve and adding more vegetables."
Ironically, that's what Americans are doing too. Only here the "halving" of the food is done by the food producers, while the consumers rarely if ever notice that they are being jobbed, and are paying the same amount for ever lesser amounts of food. At least in Japan they are honest about food inflation.
As
Bloomberg shows, Tatsunami's concerns stem from the
price of food soaring at the fastest pace in 23 years after April's sales-tax increase. Rising prices
helped push the nation's misery index to the highest level since 1981, while wages adjusted for inflation fell the most in more than four years.
© Unknown
Ah yes, the title. We weren't kidding. As of this moment, Japan's misery has not been higher in an entire generation! Its Misery
index that is, which combines unemployment (3.6%) and inflation (3.4%), and results in an unprecedented 7.0%: the highest in 33 years!
Comment: These thieves ignored the injured children and the DEAD mother and grabbed the groceries? Appalling!