woop-dee-doo...

The Bank of Japan raises the key short-term interest rate from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent during a meeting of BOJ policymakers.

Gee folks, we can buy a single piece of gum with the interest gained from our bank accounts now. Ha ha...I suppose more interest is much better than NO interest. Just a few years ago, Japan had a zero-interest policy of something around 0.000000000002 or something like that.

I wonder if this is supposed to stimulate the economy, keeping interest rates so low? I am not well-schooled in economics so I don't know how it works. The funny thing is, lending consumer companies charge oooooodles for loans - out of this world interest rates. The American interest rate is something killer like 5.25% right now. I heard the Aussie$ and NZD are even higher. Oooh, time to get all our cash OUT of Japan.