Japan is indeed showing the rest of the world what's in store.
Regardless of years of a ZIRP, banking bailouts and endless QE (the BoJ were the first to initiate the concept, many years ago) Japan's central bank & govt is still losing its never-ending battle against deflation.
That's what happens when an historic debt fuelled asset bubble bursts and credit growth remains anaemic. Now this same deflationary trend is unfolding around the world.
Regarding those who followed the expert consensus and invested for inflation, I posted the comment below in the Commodities thread today (much to the chagrin of the many gold bulls);
Gold may be in official bear market territory (more than 20% off its peak price) but silver is almost half its 2011 all-time high.
But it’s not just the precious metals that are trending down and getting hammered recently. Oil, gas, copper and commodities in general are looking very sick. So much for investing in inflation hedged assets. The last hold-out, that of stocks, is still levitating on Great Inflationary Expectations. But for how much longer…
