Socio-Economics History Blog

Socio-Economics History Blog

QE, End of the Private Sector? Japanese Government Now Largest Shareholder of 474 Big Companies

by mosesman

Japan_Abe_helicopter_money_drop_QE

BOJ_Kuroda_laughing
BOJ Kuroda: “I am not so dumb after all! What a marvelous SCAM. I get to own corporate Japan with money out of thin air.”
  • Where did the BOJ get the money to buy up stocks when the Japanese government is bankrupt? By creating money out of thin air.
    –
  • QE, End of the Private Sector? Japanese Government Now Largest Shareholder of 474 Big Companies
    by , http://wolfstreet.com/  
    The two biggest buyers of Japan Inc. are flying blind and don’t care.
    The Bank of Japan and the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) have been buying stocks to inflate the market, create some kind of “wealth effect,” and bamboozle regular Japanese into pouring once again into stocks, after many of them lost a big chunk of their savings when the prior bubble imploded without ever recovering.
    –
    In 2014, the GPIF – buckling under the pressure from the Abe administration – decided to plow about 25% (“±9%”) of its assets into Japanese stocks. With assets at the time of still about $1.4 trillion, 25% would amount to about $350 billion. So the fund has been buying a lot! And it has been a disaster! [Read…  Japan Mega-Pension Fund Dives into Stocks, Foreign Assets, Loses Shirt. People Not Amused]
    –
    But even after Japanese stocks took a licking over the past year, the fund’s allocation to domestic equities is still 21%, so near its range and no longer a powerful buyer. But to make up for any holes left behind by the pension fund, the BOJ announced on July 28 that it would nearly double its annual purchases of equity ETFs to ¥6 trillion ($59 billion).
    –
    The holdings of Japanese stocks by these two entities have nearly tripled over the past five fiscal years to about ¥39 trillion ($381 billion), according to The Nikkei. During that time, the Nikkei stock index soared 70%, “demonstrating their powerful support.”
    –
    read more.

end