So, I contracted Dengue Fever. If this nasty little tropical mosquito-borne illness is new to you… here’s a handy little official medical diagram of what having Dengue feels like. Anyway. We’re in Bali and I’ve spent the last six days alternating between sweating, freezing, cramping, whining, sleeping, and other gross symptoms. To make matters worse, I found out today in …
Of Mice & Yen: Part 3 of 4
As I attempted to explain in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, Japan has a demographic problem and a debt problem . The Eventual-But-Not-Sure-Exactly-When Japanese Debt Crisis So here’s the issue. Japan currently has a budget deficit of about 6.9%. As long as the government is running a budget deficit it will continue to need more debt to fund …
Of Mice & Yen: Part 2 of 4
In Part 1 of this series we reviewed the demographic challenges confronting Japan. With a very rapidly aging population – a population that is also declining – Japan faces a crisis, as there will not be enough working age adults to support the 40% of the population that is projected to be over the age of 65 in the coming …
Of Mice & Yen: Part 1 of 4
I was very excited to visit Japan. When we first started planning the trip, I initially tried to allocate about three weeks to the country before Lauren reminded me that we had a lot to see. Additionally, we had decided that we’d like to spend more time in emerging and frontier markets and any extra time in Japan would have …
Lost in Transition: Cultural Observations from Japan.
After spending a week in Tokyo and Kyoto to kick off our trip, I was reviewing my notes and settled on sharing the following totally random thoughts and observations. Everyone is amazingly friendly. We asked for directions a LOT and not only did everyone stop to help us, but they genuinely seemed pleased to be of assistance. Not a …