Mothra meets Deflation

Central Banking has recently moved into the new stage of one-upmanship with the BOJ announcement that it would double the monetary base over the next 2 years in an effort to push inflation towards a 2% target. “Whatever it takes”, just became “Really whatever it takes”. This new brand of monetary machismo brings to mind that other great Japanese battle: Mothra versus Godzilla.  As you can remember, Mothra was the mutant monster who battled Godzilla, these battles often taking place in downtown Japanese locales. One can think of the BOJ as Mothra, and the specter of deflation or dis-inflation as Godzilla with the screaming and fleeing civilians desperately trying to save themselves from the collateral damage being inflicted by this battle.  The collateral damage in our modern day battle, would be a plummeting Japanese Yen, and the real risk of creating a bubble in some unforeseen asset class. This latest Central Bank effort further reinforces our inclination towards hard assets.