Abenomics Fail: Japanese GDP Flat, Annualized Growth Running at 0.2% Rate

What the fuck are they printing all of that money for, if they can’t even get the economy to grow at a 1% rate? This is utter horseshit. You know it. I know it. Abe and Kuroda knows it.

Gross domestic product expanded by an annualized 0.2 percent in the second quarter, less than the median estimate of economists for a 0.7 percent increase.

Business spending declined 0.4 percent from the previous three months (estimate +0.2 percent), according to the data released by the Cabinet Office on Monday.
Private consumption increased 0.2 percent over the same period (estimate +0.2 percent).

Net exports subtracted 0.3 percentage point from GDP.

In the meantime, the Bank of Japan are quite busy allocating upwards of $750 billion per annum towards the explicit manipulation of government and corporate yields, as well as stock prices–through their QE programmes. I suppose the ‘wealth effect’ of higher asset prices is helping someone, somewhere, namely underfunded pensions who rely on a rate of return. Or, maybe it helps the bankrupt government borrow money without having to deal with the annoyance of interest expense. Under this scheme, which is being duplicated around the world, big government gets to enjoy the grandeur of runaway fiscal budgets (extra Robber Baron), which funnels large expenditures into the private sector, through the rigging of interest rate–which permits this game of shadows to cast its spell upon markets–indefinitely.

Keep buying. Nothing unusual about this, at all.