Enter Japan

Nikkei 225

The focus on stock market corrections in the Far East has been China ... but now there is another worry there ... Japan. The Nikkei 225 stock index in Japan has dropped over 15% just since mid-July ... from 20,953 to 17,792 ... dropping 390 points this morning. Whether this is Asian contagion or some other fundamental problem, I can't say ... see: CNBC Analysis. But this is occurring in the midst of a large amount of Quantitative Easing on the Bank of Japan's part ... an action that normally props up stock markets.

Japan is also carrying government debt equivalent to something like 200% of GNP versus about 74% here in the United States. This also worries me ... for, if both China and Japan swoon in tandem, can the rest of the world be far behind?