Teaching Econ is easy. Especially right now. Teaching street hockey metaphors to Japanese undergrads…. Much less so 🤪

Used the “spoiled kid taking his net home when his team is losing street hockey” metaphor in int econ lecture today. They may not have understood 😅🤣

The Big Mac Index is a really good approximation of what fair value of all currencies *should* be.

I don’t think it means anything for Japan…. Yet.
Pretty clear that it’s not really about trade but about punishing/negotiating. Japan did pretty well for itself under Trump I. I’m optimistic they can do so during Trump II

Quebec would be the 13th largest state! Representatives galore!

They work great. Just make sure to not lose your own SIM in doing the changeover!

Tried to impart that feeling to my 3rd year int fin seminar yesterday. I think I got 1 kid to *maybe* get it 🙃

The other hidden cost in all these Akiya is that if you just want the land, the demolition costs can be huge. In that example, they’d likely have to use barges to bring in a wrecking ball and dispose of debris. Total demolition costs could easily run into the 10s of millions of yen.

Mine still works great decades after buying

HardOff!

Minidisc players still make great stand-alone recorders, and Sony had (has?) some really high-quality small mics to fit into the aux ports!

All depends on inflation:
If Fed Funds rate minus inflation is still way higher than BOJ rate minus inflation, JPY will continue to weaken

Three cheers for “efficient investment access for the little guy” for sure. But at *some* point, doesn’t this passive behemoth create active opportunities (not for individuals, obviously)