I live in Japan and the Japanese government, under its Abenomics movement, decided on another round of QE and injected 20% more currency into the market earlier this year.
I get that the yen is too strong and needs to weaken in order to protect the trade balance between itself and other countries.
But the inflation eventually reached us consumers and every day items have gotten that much more expensive.
Now my 10,000 yen only gets me ~8333 yen worth of stuff. If I could go back in time and not contribute the lost 1/6th of my savings in labor I might not be angry, but I can't.
My salary isn't going up either and there is even talk of pay reduction due to a worsening economy.
So to protect myself my choices seem to be:
1. Buy things up before the inflation reaches me as a consumer, passing the purchasing power theft on to the merchants. (possible, but I blow all my money away)
2. Convert that currency to something else that hedges against inflation (and retains its value over time) if I want to not spend it.
I chose #2 in the form of gold.
If you want to call me a goldbug, go ahead.
I'm getting into REITs soon too so maybe you can come up with clever derogatory name for that as well.
Yet even this small amount of increased inflation (or technically, the expectations of future inflation) is the primary driver behind the recovering economy. The additional currency in the market is irrelevent and is the whole point of this exercise: it does very little or nothing in a liquidity trap.
For what it's worth, I also live in Japan and I haven't seen anything like you have experienced regarding your purchasing power. My rent costs the same, my train and bus tickets are the same, can't tell any difference at the grocery, etc.
I get that the yen is too strong and needs to weaken in order to protect the trade balance between itself and other countries.
But the inflation eventually reached us consumers and every day items have gotten that much more expensive.
Now my 10,000 yen only gets me ~8333 yen worth of stuff. If I could go back in time and not contribute the lost 1/6th of my savings in labor I might not be angry, but I can't.
My salary isn't going up either and there is even talk of pay reduction due to a worsening economy.
So to protect myself my choices seem to be:
1. Buy things up before the inflation reaches me as a consumer, passing the purchasing power theft on to the merchants. (possible, but I blow all my money away)
2. Convert that currency to something else that hedges against inflation (and retains its value over time) if I want to not spend it.
I chose #2 in the form of gold.
If you want to call me a goldbug, go ahead.
I'm getting into REITs soon too so maybe you can come up with clever derogatory name for that as well.
I'll try to help you win your bingo round.