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jclay2
03-14-2011, 10:30 PM
Ok, can someone elaborate? Did I miss something. Japanese Stock Index futures just crashed and are now down 14%. At one point, it was down 16% and since Thursday their market has gone down about 25%. Reactors are on fire and I am hearing rumors of radiation heading towards Tokyo. Is this fear not based in reality or is it time to hit the panic button? I just heard a nuclear engineer on the radio saying this was going to blow over in about 2 days. Now reactors are blowing up on a daily occurrence. What gives?

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/futures/
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/nikkei-flash-crash-futures-plummet-16-all-hell-breaks-loose-japan

TheeJoeGlass
03-14-2011, 10:31 PM
fourth explosion, meltdown underway?

All nine reactors at risk of meltdown. you cant tell me that wont mess things up.

Michael Landon
03-14-2011, 11:19 PM
You know, if we are going to fuck around with nuclear power we SHOULD come up with some way to stop things like this once it happens. We don't have a plan for things like this?

- ML

TheeJoeGlass
03-14-2011, 11:23 PM
They threw the playbook out and went straight to seawater.

HOLLYWOOD
03-14-2011, 11:34 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-15/bank-of-japan-fails-to-contain-investor-panic-as-nuclear-danger-escalates.html
BOJ Fails to Contain Investor Panic as Nuclear Danger Escalates

By Keiko Ujikane and Mayumi Otsuma - Mar 14, 2011 8:43 PM PT Tue Mar 15 03:43:11 GMT 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=i9nSinZzT1tg
Masaaki Shirakawa, governor of the Bank of Japan. Photographer: Toshiyuki Aizawa/Bloomberg



The Bank of Japan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/bank-of-japan/)’s step to provide short-term liquidity and expand an asset-purchase program failed to contain investor panic today as the risk of nuclear radiation leaks north of Tokyo escalated.
BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s pledge yesterday to secure financial stability and prevent investors from becoming more risk averse was overwhelmed today, with the Topix index of stocks suffering its worst drop since the 1987 crash. In the interbank lending market, overnight call loan rates traded between 0.08 percent and 0.13 percent, according to Ueda Yagi Tanshi Co., higher than the BOJ’s target of zero to 0.1 percent.
“The market’s chaos won’t calm down unless the BOJ will take more bold actions,” said Susumu Kato (http://topics.bloomberg.com/susumu-kato/), chief economist for Japan at Credit Agricole CIB and CLSA in Tokyo. “A further plunge in stocks will pressure the BOJ into additional easing.”
While the central bank said after its policy meeting yesterday that the economy remained on course to emerge from its fourth-quarter slump, risks to consumer confidence (http://topics.bloomberg.com/consumer-confidence/) intensified with the government’s failure to contain a crisis at a nuclear power plant. Prime Minister Naoto Kan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/naoto-kan/) said in a televised address that the threat of further radiation leaks is rising.
Less Than Fed

Shirakawa yesterday committed at a news conference in Tokyo to keep pumping cash as needed after unleashing a record 15 trillion yen ($183 billion) in one-day operations. The central bank added 5 trillion yen this morning. The bank yesterday also decided to double its asset-purchase program to 10 trillion yen, an increase that’s about one-tenth the size of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Treasuries-buying effort.
“The Bank of Japan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/japan/) is missing the chance of doing something more aggressive,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo, who used to work at the central bank, said yesterday. “What the BOJ should do now is to anchor investors’ sentiment” with accelerated purchases in its program, he said.
The Topix slid 12 percent at 12:42 p.m. local time, following a 7.5 percent drop yesterday. Japan’s currency traded at 81.52 per dollar, keeping its advance since the March 11 catastrophe to 1.8 percent, amid speculation officials may intervene to sell yen should it soar. Bonds rose, sending yields down for a third day.
Noda’s Take

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda (http://topics.bloomberg.com/yoshihiko-noda/) told reporters that the plunge in stocks may be temporary and that bonds and the yen were “relatively calm.”
“I will continue to monitor closely developments in the stock market as it’s declining on temporary factors” such as the impact of the quake and concerns about damage to the nuclear plant, he said.

HOLLYWOOD
03-14-2011, 11:35 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-15/bank-of-japan-fails-to-contain-investor-panic-as-nuclear-danger-escalates.html
BOJ Fails to Contain Investor Panic as Nuclear Danger Escalates

By Keiko Ujikane and Mayumi Otsuma - Mar 14, 2011 8:43 PM PT Tue Mar 15 03:43:11 GMT 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=i9nSinZzT1tg
Masaaki Shirakawa, governor of the Bank of Japan. Photographer: Toshiyuki Aizawa/Bloomberg

The Bank of Japan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/bank-of-japan/)’s step to provide short-term liquidity and expand an asset-purchase program failed to contain investor panic today as the risk of nuclear radiation leaks north of Tokyo escalated.
BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s pledge yesterday to secure financial stability and prevent investors from becoming more risk averse was overwhelmed today, with the Topix index of stocks suffering its worst drop since the 1987 crash. In the interbank lending market, overnight call loan rates traded between 0.08 percent and 0.13 percent, according to Ueda Yagi Tanshi Co., higher than the BOJ’s target of zero to 0.1 percent.
“The market’s chaos won’t calm down unless the BOJ will take more bold actions,” said Susumu Kato (http://topics.bloomberg.com/susumu-kato/), chief economist for Japan at Credit Agricole CIB and CLSA in Tokyo. “A further plunge in stocks will pressure the BOJ into additional easing.”
While the central bank said after its policy meeting yesterday that the economy remained on course to emerge from its fourth-quarter slump, risks to consumer confidence (http://topics.bloomberg.com/consumer-confidence/) intensified with the government’s failure to contain a crisis at a nuclear power plant. Prime Minister Naoto Kan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/naoto-kan/) said in a televised address that the threat of further radiation leaks is rising.
Less Than Fed

Shirakawa yesterday committed at a news conference in Tokyo to keep pumping cash as needed after unleashing a record 15 trillion yen ($183 billion) in one-day operations. The central bank added 5 trillion yen this morning. The bank yesterday also decided to double its asset-purchase program to 10 trillion yen, an increase that’s about one-tenth the size of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Treasuries-buying effort.
“The Bank of Japan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/japan/) is missing the chance of doing something more aggressive,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo, who used to work at the central bank, said yesterday. “What the BOJ should do now is to anchor investors’ sentiment” with accelerated purchases in its program, he said.
The Topix slid 12 percent at 12:42 p.m. local time, following a 7.5 percent drop yesterday. Japan’s currency traded at 81.52 per dollar, keeping its advance since the March 11 catastrophe to 1.8 percent, amid speculation officials may intervene to sell yen should it soar. Bonds rose, sending yields down for a third day.
Noda’s Take

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda (http://topics.bloomberg.com/yoshihiko-noda/) told reporters that the plunge in stocks may be temporary and that bonds and the yen were “relatively calm.”
“I will continue to monitor closely developments in the stock market as it’s declining on temporary factors” such as the impact of the quake and concerns about damage to the nuclear plant, he said.

00_Pete
03-15-2011, 12:00 AM
You know that guy that was Benoit Mandelbrot disciple and wrote a book called "The Black Swan" (cant remember his name)? He argued that modern society and its economical/industrial infrastructure is so complicated/centralized/over-optimized that if a total unexpected event happens things will just totally collapse? That guy and his opinions are on my mind right now...

Pericles
03-15-2011, 08:46 AM
You know, if we are going to fuck around with nuclear power we SHOULD come up with some way to stop things like this once it happens. We don't have a plan for things like this?

- ML

It is a question of safety margins. Today, we know too much, or to be more precise - we think we know the risks with a high degreee of certainty, so we build things based on the safety margin required for what can reasonably occur. But, events are not reasonable, and disaster strike.

An illustrative point. In 1994 there was massive flooding along the Mississippi river ("a 100 year flood") and the dikes and levees built in the 1930s failed. They failed because they were built on the some 50+ years of good data, so we could know what safety margin was required. The event exceeded the safety margin. However, St. Louis was not flooded out because its protection held. Why did it hold? Because it was designed and built in the early 1840s by CPT Robert E. Lee of the Corps of Engineers, who not having all of the data available to modern science, designed the works to hold under any forseeable circumstance. Today, such a design would never make it past the various reviews for being too expensive and the more optimal solution would cost 20% less, and you just buy insurance if you want to mitigate that additional risk.

sailingaway
03-15-2011, 09:15 AM
They are printing money like mad to cover earthquake/tsunami recovery. Which would be the stated reason central banks exist, except that they've done it so much in the past for no emergency at all (just like the Fed) and are so mired in debt they have no room left.