"Judgment Must Begin at the House of God"

(From a tunnel to above the Tokyo Bay...; Click to enlarge!)



"Judgment Must Begin at the House of God"


(Japan's Politics and New Economics)


I had a bad dream last night, since I took on a few bad guys with my weapons in it.

It has nothing to do with a late-night TV news program, since it was excellent as usual.

It might rather imply that I have wrong forecasts on some issues.

For example, I expect that the 2016 Olympics will be held in Tokyo; and Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso will be soon replaced by opposition leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa after the coming general election.

One or two of these two expectations might be wrong.

The 2016 Olympics might be held in Rio de Janeiro; and Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso might win against opposition leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa in the coming general election.

As for the 2016 Olympic Games, it might be rather better if it should not be held in Tokyo, since we will not be annoyed by a possibility of a great earthquake to hit Japan as was the case of China in 2008.

However, as the general election of the Lower House of Japan’s Diet is to be held by this September, the prediction of the results of the elections is imminently critical.

*** *** *** ***

An official secretary of opposition leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa was arrested and indicted in March for violation of the Political Funding Regulation Law.

It is because Mr. Ichiro Ozawa received big money for many years from a construction company through an illegal channel. Through both illegal and legal channels, Mr. Ichiro Ozawa has received three million dollars (three hundred million yen) in this decade, a big surprise for innocent voters. The secretary has been in charge of managing Mr. Ozawa’s political funds in these years.

The result of the judicial trial is yet to be known; but the news gave great impact on the Japanese people in March; and some political commotion is still lasting while Mr. Ozawa is so far determined to keep his current position: the head of the Democratic Party of Japan.

With so many young politicians in the party, the resignation of Mr. Ozawa would probably weaken its organizational structure and capability. What’s more, Mr. Ozawa’s presence can suppress growth and infiltration of pro-North Korea forces within the party. Mr. Ozawa cannot casually leave the post which also protects him from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.

As the current ruling party LDP is now so unpopular, it is expected that Mr. Ozawa will win the coming election with so many handicaps and disadvantages.

Since the LDP is well associated with major corporations while the DPJ is with labor unions, this change in political administration is comparable with that achieved by Mr. Barack Obama.

Yet, the Japanese voters who want Mr. Ozawa to resign as head of the DPJ account for more than 65% of all. Nonetheless, it is highly expected that each party will secure almost the same number of seats in the Lower House of the national assembly after the election.

Due to Mr. Ozawa’s presence, if it should get off the balance in favor of the LDP, incumbent Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso will continue his administration.

And, in this case, Prime Minister Mr. Aso might secure the longtime rule of the government.

However, there is a merit of Mr. Ozawa’s keeping his current position in the DPJ if not as prime minister of Japan, since his presence can suppress growth and infiltration of pro-North Korea forces within the DPJ.

(In case that Mr. Ichiro Ozawa should step down before the general election, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama will probably take up the post as the head of the largest opposition party in Japan, since Mr. Hatoyama is close to 40-year-career politician Mr. Ozawa.)

*** *** *** ***


Now we have to review the relationship between Investment, Consumption, and National Income.

The conventional economics is wrong in that it neglects the largest stakeholder in a nation: businesses that function mainly and instinctively to increase their profits sacrificing workers and consumers, though the national income must be appropriately shared by workers and businesses and by consumers alone eventually.

The more businesses take the national income, the less workers take. It would be as if the final end of Investment would be to make businesses rich or increase their profits.

Therefore, to avoid this bias toward businesses, make workers rich, and make the national income meaningful, the profits those companies have gained must be fully distributed among workers and consumers.

It is so, since one of the reasons for the Great Depression is: the more businesses take from the national income, the less innocent workers take.






(Vous et moi, je serai libre comme les oiseaux dans les arbres.

http://www.menziesera.com/midi/diana.mid

Source: http://www.menziesera.com/singalong/diana.htm)



1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

1Pe 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

"To Heal the Brokenhearted"

(Tokyo above the Ground)
(Tokyo on the Ground)
(Tokyo Underground)


"To Heal the Brokenhearted"

(Keynesian Economics and Corporate Profits)



If you are good at economics and not good at, say, baseball, you had better challenge baseball trying to deliver 3,000 or 4,000 hits in 17 years or 22 years.

It is so, since if you succeed in what you are good at, you will be forever a loser in evaluation on how much you can succeed in what you are weak at.

I am telling this to you, since I am confident in that this is the measure the God should apply to you.

*** *** *** ***

According to Keynesian economics, national income is the sum of consumption and investment.

Or more correctly, a change in national income is the sum of a change in consumption and a change in investment.

Y = C + I

But, C (consumption) and I (investment) are not independent from each other.

If "I" increases and goods are produced, "C" will also increase. When somebody buys goods in a nation, it will increase income of a seller. Eventually, if investment is increased, it will not only directly push up national income but also indirectly cause earning growth.

It is called the theory of the spending multiplier.

However, there is a trick in this explanation.

You can try to sell goods easily. But, you cannot buy goods easily. To buy goods, you need savings.

Put simply, Keynesian economics is not sufficient in terms of taking savings into consideration.

In reality, people have some amount of savings. But, their debts can surpass their savings. In this financial situation, people, namely consumers, cannot buy goods, even if a huge amount of investment is made into the industry.

Accordingly, in an economic slump where people have smaller savings than debts or loans, even if a government increases spending on public works projects, it cannot easily increase consumption and income of people.

Yet, as the industry will produce more goods due to investment, a huge amount of unsold goods will be accumulated in market, leading to deflation.

(http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~hitokotonusi/keinnzunotimeitekikekkann.htm)

Now, it is said that a personal saving rate in the U.S. has been increasing since 2008, reaching 3%.

It is also said that a personal saving rate in Japan was 11.4% in 1997, but 2.2% in 2007.

It tells that Japan has been in deflation in this decade. But, the U.S. consumers have been allowed lucrative credit accommodation in these decades to the extent of causing the subprime-loan-based housing boom.

If the credit system is recovered for American consumers, its economy will be also restored, avoiding deflation. And then, Japanese exporters will enjoy another cycle of a boom.

However, the underlying issue of deflation in Japan remains, since Y = C + I + P where P is a dividend to consumers from businesses who have posted profits.

In other word, if businesses do not fully return their profits to consumers (not only to their shareholders, executives, and employees), the whole society might be led to deflation and dangerous deflation.

I repeat:

Y = C + I + P

Now, what makes the sudden and huge decrease in global trade of real goods must be checked. That is the American consumption.
----------------


The actual index is expressed as a number derived by comparing the current cost of goods and services to the cost of the same items between 1982-1984. The reference year is given a value equal to 100. Subsequent indices are expressed as a percentage of the base year.

http://www.ded.mo.gov/researchandplanning/indicators/inflation/index.stm
----------------

The above figure shows how exporters to the American market was damaged in the wake of the Wall Street shock in September 2008.

Of course, the issue is that no Nobel-Prize-winner class economists in the world could precisely predict this trend and transition indicated now so clearly in the figure of the American Consumer Price Index.

*** *** *** ***

When the summer Olympic Games was held in China in 2008, two great tragedies occurred in the world: the Great Sichuan Earthquake and the Wall Street Debacle.

Yet, Tokyo is highly expected to host the 2016 Olympics.

But, the greatest city in the world can of course concede the internationally honorable chance to Chicago or Rio de Janeiro, the two notable cities for legendary gangsters in the past and today.

Or which do you like to see Tokyo or the Olympics?




(If they are followers of God, they must have failed in business. So, a bad wife tells a foolish husband not to believe in God.　Il doit être clair comme le cristal.

http://www.countrymidikaraoke.com/duocentury/Les%20Astronautes%20-%20Fol%20espoir.kar

Source:http://www.countrymidikaraoke.com/duocentury/)




Luk 4:17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

Luk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Luk 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

"Some Thirtyfold, Some Sixty, and Some An Hundred"

(Tokyo Area, Japan)


"Some Thirtyfold, Some Sixty, and Some An Hundred"


(DEFLATION)


Deflation is better than inflation, at least, for Japan.

But, before the American economy should get into real deflation in any future, the economy of the 21st century must be carefully studied.

---------------------------
Chinese growth slips to 6.1 percent

Thursday 16 April 2009

AFP - China's economy grew 6.1 percent in the first quarter, the government said Thursday, continuing a startling slowdown for a country that not long ago was seeing double-digit growth rates.

...

Urban fixed asset investments rose 28.6 percent in the first quarter, while in March alone the increase was 30.3 percent year-on-year, the bureau said.

The figure is a measure of government spending on infrastructure, which got a huge boost in November with a four-trillion-yuan (580-billion-dollar) package aimed at warding off the effects of the global economic crisis.

Industrial output expanded 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from a year earlier, while in March it increased by 8.3 percent, the government said.

China's industrial output, which illustrates activity in the nation's millions of factories and workshops, rose 12.9 percent in 2008.

http://www.france24.com/en/20090416-china-growth-economic-slowdown-gdp-domestic-growth
---------------------------

Germany, France, and even the U.K. have a kind of large domestic consumer base called Europe.

The U.S. has 300-million consumer base.

But, Japan is unique not only in that its consumer base of 120 million is confined in a California-size land but also in that it has too powerful production capability which can only normally function with huge overseas client bases.

So, Japan has cultivated the Chinese market after its success in fully securing the American market. But, there has been a cost to secure the Chinese market: deflation.

The so-called "100-Yen (one-dollar) Shop" is symbolic in this context, since an influx of cheap Chinese commodities into the Japanese consumer market since 1990's have reached Japanese consumers through this kind of discount shops having been introduced into almost every street of major cities in Japan one after another.

The large-scale sale of cheap Chinese commodities have partly damaged and changed traditional value systems in Japan, leading to deflation as observed today.

In the middle of 1990's, the 100-Yen Shops offering every item imported from China at 100 yen triggered deflation in Japan where all the consumers already possessed everything they needed in their humble daily life, including cars, TVs, computers, telephones, brand bags, manga comic books, and high-quality of any kind of service provision while Japan's nature was under a threat from too much development and desire-driven building/demolition projects.

Though no Nobel-winner-class Western economists have ever argued, Japanese economic growth must have been suppressed to protect its nature and environment as well as the spirit and soul of the Japanese race. And it has been so suppressed in the form of deflation.

(Yet, in principle, with the two great markets of America and China secured for Japanese businesses, Japan is expected to sustain its economy and avoid any decisive economic crisis, which is now truly being tested.)

*** *** *** ***

When winners do not mind life of losers, deflation could prevail in the society.

When smart people have won competition, including price competition, deflation could prevail in the society, since it would not be a threat to those winners any more.

Such winners whose largest concern at any time is whether they can keep their positions in a company or a market as they cannot be respected in other places would really try to win competition even introducing deflation.

I mean that deflation is one of the worst results of competition in market or the society.




(N'oubliez pas qu'ils sont plus intelligents que vous, mais vous pouvez éviter les dommages dus à la déflation sans nuire à d'autres personnes si vous le respect de Dieu. And a mountain will not be deflated.

http://www.gagirl.com/music/aintnomountainhigh.html

Source:http://www.gagirl.com/music/)



Mar 4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

Mar 4:17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

Mar 4:18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

Mar 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Mar 4:20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

"All the Temptation"

"All the Temptation"

"American Dream vs. Christian Dream"


If Mrs. Obama failed in her management of a family dog, it would not harm dignity of the people's nation United States of America.

But, if somebody failed in something, it would harm the European Civilization.

That is why U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican is significantly counted as such.

Anyway, the Buddha is believed to have been born on April 8 by the Japanese and the Chinese, while Jesus Christ is scientifically believed to be born in Spring, as I once discussed in this blog.


------------------------
In Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqi Christians marked Easter in a country where thousands of the religion's followers have fled the majority Muslim nation since the 2003 US-led invasion.

According to Christian leaders, 250,000 of the 800,000 Christians who lived in Iraq before the invasion six years ago that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, have now left the country. Christians make up three percent of the population.

China has millions of Catholics who either attend mass at official churches overseen by the communist government, or who are part of illegal, "underground" congregations.

Loyal to the Pope, the latter run the risk of being questioned, beaten and even imprisoned, according to critics.

"The situation is going from bad to worse," said Joseph Kung of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, a US-based Catholic activist group.

In a case raised by the Vatican, underground bishop Jia Zhiguo has been in detention since March 30 in the northern province of Hebei.

Meanwhile, a Swedish church unveiled a life-sized statue of Jesus made up of nearly 30,000 Lego bricks donated by churchgoers, pastor Per Wilder of the Oensta Gryta Church in Vaesteras, about 110 kilometres (70 miles) west of Stockholm, told AFP.

And New York Archbishop Edward Egan officiated at his last Easter Mass before his retirement, sending a message of hope from the United States to the world.

"Today my prayer for all of us is that we listen to the message of Easter," said 77-year-old Egan, who will be replaced Wednesday as head of the key New York archdiocese by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

In Washington, President Barack Obama and his family attended Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church, just across from the White House.


http://www.france24.com/en/20090413-pope-leads-prayers-world-celebrates-easter
------------------------

It should be also noted that when the sun enters Aries in the sky, the Thai people recognize it as an indication of the coming of a new year, which is usually April 13.

And this 2009/4/13 was really the end of the large-scale civil strife in Bangkok.

This week a new year truly began, though I don't know if you have ever received a new year card in these days.

*** *** *** ***

There is a guy in New York who claims that he drove 2,794 miles from New York City to Santa Monica Pier, California, in 31 hours and 4 minutes at an average speed of 90.1 m.p.h.

(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E3D71538F934A25753C1A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&&scp=4&sq=Alexander%20Roy&st=cse )

Respecting a Keynesian-style demand policy, it might be reasonable to construct a Shinkansen super-express railroad line from New York to Los Angeles.

It will carry you in 12 hours from New York to Los Angeles.

In addition, GM can be converted to a railroad company.

Then, economy will be recovered, the nature will be preserved, and energy shortage will be avoided; Oh what a wonderful century this is!






(Don't go on; don't go on; don't go on breaking their heart with your American Dream. This is what I want to say to those who must have Christian Dream instead of their American Dream. Ne pas être un serviteur du diable, car il est en train de tuer mon coeur...

http://www.gagirl.com/music/dontgobreaking.html )



Luk 4:13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

Luk 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

Luk 4:15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

"Springing up into Everlasting Life"

(It took more than 900 million years for a multi cellular organism to grow to mankind, passing through an era of the fish 450 million years ago; It will take 900 months or 900 minutes for a man to see the kingdom of God.)


"Springing up into Everlasting Life"

Charity-Based Religion


(In Preparation...)

American Christianity is a kind of charity-based religion.

They contribute to charity organizations from three motivations:
Natural one
Worldly one
Spiritual one.

If an American is good-natured trying to improve environment in which he/she lives while respecting the teaching of the Holy Book, this respectable person would surely provide aid for a charity.

But, to whom or through what organization?

------------------------
Charity Rankings Giveth Less Than Meets the Eye

The Ratings of Nonprofits Are Often Uncharitable, Sometimes Failing to Credit Crucial Factors Such as Success

Call it a false sense of humanity.

It may make you feel better to know that your charitable donations are going to organizations that have been highly rated by any number of online charity rankings. But these sites fail to quantify the most-important and most elusive charity measurement: success in achieving its mission.

...



It's hard to know how much these ratings influence donors. Surveys have asked them; 92% of visitors to Charity Navigator who fill out the site's survey say their visit influenced their decision. But Prof. Rooney said that due diligence for charitable giving is "like God, Mom, and apple pie" -- things people are inclined to tell strangers they value even if they don't. Fully investigating a charity is, for many donors, "not worth the due diligence it would take."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122963299671419401.html?mod=article-outset-box
------------------------

Anyway, let's check reality of rating charity organizations:

------------------------
AMERICAN INDIAN AIP GRADE
American Indian College Fund A-

AFRICAN-AMERICAN AIP GRADE
Africa-America Institute B+
NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund A–
UNCF/The College Fund A

HISPANIC AIP GRADE
Hispanic Scholarship Fund A

ASIA & ASIAN-AMERICAN AIP GRADE
Asia Foundation A
Asia Society B+
Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund A

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AIP GRADE
Catalyst A
Global Fund for Women A
Women for Women International A

CRIME & FIRE PREVENTION AIP GRADE
Prison Fellowship Ministries B

DRUG & ALCOHOL ABUSE AIP GRADE
Drug Policy Alliance B+

http://charitywatch.org/toprated.html#crime
------------------------

Apart from the theme in this section, I have now a feeling that Hispanics and women will play a major role in the coming 2012 Presidential Election of the U.S., since they look like going "A" all the way.

The agenda must be the relationship between the American Dream and the American Charity.

The general finding is that if you think you have attained your American Dream, you would like to give donations to some charity.

But, if you have been sacrificed for others' American Dream, you would like to receive help from some charity.

In my view, charity is a concept by which we measure absence of the kingdom of God.

(To be continued...)




(How can they be satisfied with such success? Parce qu'ils sont satisfaits de ces femmes.

http://www.gagirl.com/music/unchainedmelody.html )



Joh 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Joh 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

"Light is Sprung Up"

"Light is Sprung Up"



(In Preparation...)


Defense Budgets Per Capita of Major Countries in 2007

Country.....Defense Budget Per Capita (US Dollars)
Israel.........1149
USA............1138
------
France.........636
UK...............590
------
Germany.........383
Australia.........388
Italy............383
Russia.........333
------
Taiwan.........336
JAPAN.........290
South Korea.........266
North Korea.........214
------
Iran............67
Egypt............41
China............37
Vietnam.........29
Indonesia.......29
Thailand.........27
Pakistan.........17
India............13


Due to the Pacifist Constitution, Japan has military forces only for self defence of the nation but not for war.

The U.K. and France are two major ex-colonial rulers.

The U.S. is currently the only global military power.

Ratios of defense budgets per capita of these three categories of nations are:
1:2:4

If you are an Asian living somewhere far from Japan, you might understand why Americans look four times more arrogant than the Japanese.

If you are an Asian living somewhere far from Japan, you might understand why the British and the French look twice more arrogant than the Japanese.

And, you may reasonably muse, "Indeed, Israel is the most natural and possible part of the U.S."

At present, I don't think I have to take into consideration the size of population of each country in trying to get the perspective of the international power relationships, since the War on Terror is in its decade-long attrition phase and Wall Street is in its decade-long subdued phase.

*** *** *** ***


(To be continued...)








Mat 4:11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Mat 4:12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

Mat 4:13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

Mat 4:14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

Mat 4:15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

Mat 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.