Green Shoots redux

Green Shoots redux

Japan's export numbers may have beaten economists' expectations, but they are still terrible; down 36.5% YOY in July. 

"Declines in shipments accelerated in all major regions: Exports to China fell 26.5 percent, shipments to the U.S. slid 39.5 percent and those to Europe slumped 45.8 percent, according to today’s report. "

Even as President Obama praised Ben Bernanke for staving off a depression in the US, numbers like this show that US consumers are still keeping their wallets firmly closed, and that means the prospects for countries like Japan remain gloomy indeed, recent GDP figures notwithstanding.

I raised the issue with Steve Keen today; he's an Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney and is still convinced that there will be no green shoots until the debt de-leveraging process is complete. He told me:

"Nothing has been done to address the excessive levels of debt. Economies will not perform the way economists are expecting them to."