Oh What a Week and Future!
Last December or so, I heard a voice of some spirit saying that it would be around January 20 or so (or the third week of January).
I did not see what would happen around January 20 or so, but a great earthquake has already happened in Haiti taking tens of thousands of lives, and a legal conflict between the ruling party of Japan and public prosecutors has been already intensified along with arrests of present and ex-secretaries (including one current Diet member) of the Secretary-General of the key ruling party in Japan.
However something more alarming to the world and Japan might happen in the next week.
Nonetheless, as these incidents have strengthened our faith, whatever will be to reveal the glory of the God here and there.
SECTION I: Hatoyma-Ozawa Leadership in Japan
Prime Minister Mr. Yukio Hatoyama about a month ago paid to a tax office $6 million as delinquent tax payments for his receiving the gift before death from his very wealthy living mother, thus narrowly avoiding tax-evasion charges.
Secretary-General of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Mr. Ichiro Ozawa this week rejected a request from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor Office for hearing in person about his $4 million questionable political fund reporting.
Mr. Hatoyama of DPJ however looks better than any old LDP politicians and Mr. Ozawa of DPJ looks smarter than any old LDP politicians, though most of Japan's prime ministers in these 50 years were from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which has been very friendly to American Republicans.
Yet, international judgement on both the two Japanese leaders might be not so sympathetic:
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The shogun and the emperor
Dec 17th 2009 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition
To the fury of nationalists, the emperor becomes a pawn in a geopolitical game
WHO rules Japan, the emperor or the shogun? That question vexed America when it first sought to trade with Japan in the 1850s. Today, China has no doubts. The answer is the "shadow shogun", Ichiro Ozawa, a master manipulator who secured an historic victory for the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in August elections.
In the past week Mr Ozawa has hogged the limelight on two occasions to convince China—and remind Japan—who is the boss. On December 10th he led what looked like a modern-day version of a medieval tribute visit, flying 645 people, including 143 DPJ members of parliament, to Beijing. They filled five aeroplanes. His meeting with the president, Hu Jintao, made the top of the nightly news in China, an achievement in a country where many people still loathe the Japanese.
A day later, Japanese nationalists were outraged to learn that their emperor, Akihito, had been forced, apparently under indirect pressure from Mr Ozawa, to grant an exceptional audience to Xi Jinping, China’s vice president. Normally, protocol requires 30 days’ notice before a meeting with the ailing 75-year-old emperor. On this occasion it was offered with only a few days’ warning. Flag-waving protesters denounced what they saw as Mr Ozawa’s “treacherous” misuse of the emperor and railed against the DPJ’s overtures to China.
...
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15127661
Will Japan Become A Chinese Colony?
Gordon G. Chang, 09.04.09, 12:01 AM EDT
Perhaps if the prime minister-elect has his way.
On Sunday, the Democratic Party of Japan swept the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power, capturing 308 out of the 480 seats in the lower house of the Diet. Its allies will have 32 more. The LDP and its camp will number a mere 140.
At first glance, this lopsided lineup means that Yukio Hatoyama, who becomes prime minister Sept. 16, will be able to do what he wants. And what he wants to do is reverse the policies of his predecessors. So look for him to take a step back from what he and others have derided as "market fundamentalism." Hatoyama seemed, in a now-famous opinion piece on the New York Times Web site, to deride this concept both as belonging to the era of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi--and as American in origin. "
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Hatoyama campaigned against American-inspired globalization, however. This means, as a practical matter, that his government will push an anti-reform--and even an anti-capitalist--agenda as it tries to cope with the global downturn.
Hatoyama's protectionist tendencies are just a part of a broader trend against liberalization in Asia. East Asian nations, led by big brother China, are putting into place currency barriers and other restraints on trade.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/03/japan-china-yukio-hatoyama-opinions-columnists-gordon-chang.html
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The approval rating for the Hatoyama Cabinet is around 45% (20% is a critical level in Japan); and the support rate for the ruling DPJ is twice higher than the one for the opposition LDP.
So, the regime change again is not unlikely, since it needs a snap election. But, the leadership of the DPJ might change by this summer when the Upper House election is scheduled by law.
And, more importantly, this leadership problem seems to be the only problem for the DPJ.
There are many or some relatively young and hopeful politicians in the DPJ as well as in the LDP.
SECTION II: HISTORY OF STATE BANKRUPTCY
Far before Jesus Christ was born or more than a century before Alexander the Great was born, Athenes experienced state bankruptcy.
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The First recorded State Bankruptcy: The Athenian Democracy around 414 BC
The years from c. 462 BC to 431 BC (from the establishment of a radical democracy to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war) were the best years for Athens. Abroad, the Delian League that she had made with the Ionian Greeks against the common foe, Persia, became a mighty alliance under Athenian leadership. The prosperity and democracy of Athens led to an ambitious building program and the Parthenon on the Acropolis (the new museum just opened) is just one of the many splendid legacies. The success of the model also paved the way for the downfall however. Economic and cultural success and democracy not only encouraged foreign enemies and internal opposition, but also paved the way for financial mismanagement...
The members of the League sent too much money to Athens and Athens started to issue too many coins to finance the ongoing war with Sparta. This led to an unprecedented inflation and the bankruptcy and defeat was only a matter of time (404 BC). Counterfeiting of coins with the owl by formal allies, such as Corinth, also accelerated the process of decline... (R. Barrow, Athenian Democracy (London 1999).
http://theeuropeanspectator.com/archive/news/the-first-recorded-state-bankruptcy-the-athenian-democracy-around-414-bc/#D_Text
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It is said the probability that Japan suffers state bankruptcy within 100 years is 99.91%.
(http://agora-web.jp/archives/790006.html)
It is thought so, since an interest rate and an economic growth rate are not expected to turn favorably for the Japanese Government.
However, this sort of study and analysis lacks the scale effect on economy, as I suggested before.
Moreover, Japan is not at war at all and will not be due to its pacifist Constitution. Further, Japan's decades-long total alliance with America has never led to inflation except the oil crisis in 1970's. Japan's virtual economic alliance with China, India, and Brazil to be anticipated now will never result in inflation.
All that the Japanese Government has to do is to ask its people to behave rationally and reasonably with its $15 trillion assets. Based on these people's assets, the Government can even found a new national bank supported by new yen bills worth $1.5 trillion the Government, instead of the Bank of Japan, will issue. The new national bank should buy up some of the outstanding government bonds, total $7 trillion, from financial institutions. This will not devalue the yen internationally as long as Japan has a leading competitive edge in the global market. As this scheme does not decrease the figure of the $15 trillion assets, it can be repeated if necessary.
When the national bank absorbs Government's liability or bonds enough, the Government may have it vanish away with its balance sheet.
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As you know, when dinosaurs were dominant on the earth, there were no Himalayan mountains, since the Indian subcontinent was yet to touch the Asian Continent.
Indeed, when all the Himalayan mountains crumble into a desert or the sea bed, no human beings might be on the earth but new types of dinosaurs might be dominant 150 million years later.
However, our solar system might not finish another rotation around the center of the Milky Way or our galaxy, since it takes 225 million years for one round.
Anyway no one can live long to enter another lap on the galaxy; everyone dies so soon, Amen!
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/milkyway.html
2Pe 1:15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
2Pe 1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.