patrick.net

I don't see any reason why this disaster could be good for USA economically.

bubblesitter says

I don't see any reason why this disaster could be good for USA economically.

Yep!

http://m.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=53004&tid=3622&cid=205589

"Japanese buy less of our debt cause it has to rebuild"

Japan had $900B in 1Q11, now they have $1.2T.

Debt then was $9.6T of which the Fed held $1.2T.

Now it's $12.5T of which the Fed holds $2.4T.

So we've added $3T of debt since 2011, with the Japanese kicking in 10% of it, the Fed 40% (directly, I suspect its mortgage bond buying increased liquidity and appetite for govt bonds across the board).

As for the Fukushima link,

"This Fukushima-derived cesium is far below where one might expect any measurable risk to human health or marine life, according to international health agencies. And it is more than 1000 times lower than acceptable limits in drinking water set by US EPA."

The article says the cesium in the 'hotspots' was less than 2 Becquerels per m3.

By way of comparison the typical banana has 15 Becquerels of radioactive potassium.

Back to Japan's finances, in 2011 the yen was at painful levels

giving them a big bazooka of money creation leeway should they choose to pull the trigger on it.

The fearsome beauty of this bazooka is that the Japanese can print trillions of yen, buy billions of USDs with it, and then buy title to actual natural resources, productive plant, and entire megacorporations outright with this free money.