I nodded.
She stepped aside and invited me in.
Woman: “My husband passed away last year. Max was his dog. After he died, I became too ill to care for him, so my son took him to a shelter.”
I sat down, feeling terrible.
Me: “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
She smiled sadly.
Woman: “You don’t need to apologize. My husband would be happy knowing Max has a good home.”
She showed me photographs of Max as a puppy, sleeping beside her husband and following him around the garden.
Then she opened a drawer and took out a small notebook.
Woman: “My husband used to write down everything about Max. His favorite food, his habits, even the things that frightened him.”
I laughed when I saw one entry:
“Max is afraid of the vacuum cleaner. He will pretend to be brave, but he is a terrible actor.”
I took a picture of the page.
Before I left, the woman asked if she could see Max sometime.
I promised to bring him over.
The following Saturday, I returned with Max.
The moment he saw the woman, he ran toward her and placed his head on her lap.
She began crying and rubbed his ears.
Woman: “Hello, my little boy. You look after your new mother, okay?”
I sat beside her, trying not to cry myself.
Then Max suddenly jumped off her lap, ran to the front door, and started barking.
The woman smiled.
Woman: “He always did that when my husband came home.”
For a moment, we both looked toward the door.
Nobody was there.
Then she laughed softly and wiped her eyes.
Woman: “Old habits take a long time to disappear.”
I still take Max to visit her every Saturday.
And every time we arrive, she has two things waiting for him: his favorite biscuits and a photograph of the man who loved him first.
I adopted a dog that day.
But somehow, I also inherited a grandmother.
Idiotic read AGAIN.
The Japanese debt is 90% held by Japanese. The interest rate can and should flow much higher.
If anything the debt keeps rising because any economic output of Japan is immediately poured into the US financial sector through the Yen Carry Trade. Which at this point is not even an investment, it's just a theft since all this financial sector produces is bubbles nowadays.
Should Japan raise rates, it'll see an unavoidable economic shock from both sides: one, the US financial sector will explode. Which it will anyway through the AI bubble bursting. Two, it'll make the Japanese debt market actually worth something and cease the bleeding out of the Yen. The Yen will repatriate and it's very liable to cease the infinity indebtment precisely because it no longer has "free" debt.
Yes that will mean a shock, but it's US equities that will eat most of the shock, not Japan. Japan will have a temporary shock and long term return to a viable economic circuit.
Every time some idiot reads the JPY situation they think it's about "not entering a doom loop of debt", this is a complete fallacy when the debt is 90% nationally held. France has 120% debt to GDP and Japan 260%, France is 50/50 home/foreigner held and Japan 90% home held, who do you think has more creditors liable to make the country crash?
The doom loop on the contrary is the American-imposed one that Japan is currently being bled out on. Low rates, infinite indebtment, all the money raised from loans leaves for the USA and foreign markets. All the printed yen makes the currency weaker and all the outflows make it one of the most under pressure currencies on Earth. Raise the damn rates and it all stops. The Yen will stabilise but moreover the infinity credit will also cease to come out. Japan will only print money for the Japanese economy and cease to forever pay for the US egregious thefts through pseudo-magical projects that are nothing but bubbles anymore.
There is no trap but the one the US forces upon the JP government by making them stick to the Yen Carry Trade which at this point isn't a trade but a suicide. This is also why you get this two-headed monster reaction from Japan where the Government keeps spending Dollars pointlessly to restrict the Yen's constant downfall while the BOJ wants to raise rates but keeps being told not to.
Am I not right @yutokanzakireal? (he'll never answer but god damn this narrative of "Japan is in a bad shape" needs to stop. It's America that's destroying Japan not Japan being in a bad situation)