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Japan

With tens of thousands feared dead, Japan faces their worst crisis since WWW2. The devastating images pouring out of Japan show the catastrophic damage caused by over 140 aftershocks. The Japanese earthquake ranks the 5th strongest in the world since 1900. The natural disaster actually shifted the earths axis and moved the Japanese coastline by 8 feet. In comparison, the 9.0 Japanese earthquake was 1,000 times stronger than the recent Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake. Similarly, the Japanese earthquake was hundreds of times stronger than the recent Haiti earthquake. Looking forward, Japan must begin to rebuild and reinvent itself. Obstacles include Japans debt load, which is twice the size of its GDP. Rebuilding the Japanese economy will require increased borrowing and debt. Before suffering from the natural disaster, the IMF forecasted Japans debt reaching 250% of their GDP by 2015.

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