After trading overnight in Asia, Japan’s government bond market is within a hair’s breadth of setting new record lows. The 10-year JGB is within a basis point and a fraction of one while the 5-year JGB has only 2 bps to reach. It otherwise seems at odds with the mainstream narrative at least where Japan’s economy is concerned. Record lows in Germany, those seem to make sense. By every account, the German economy is in trouble. So obvious, even the notoriously frugal government is floating debt-stimulus trial balloons. And why not? Its factory and industrial sector are contracting at rates closer to the Great ... (full story)