Larry Kudlow Was Right, But Very Wrong

The human toll from the Japanese earthquake is indeed far worse than the economic toll, though we should not be grateful for that. I would have rather $250 billion in property be destroyed and supply chains for global commerce ruined for months than see 10,000+ people die.

That being said, while it is crass to speculate on the effects on Japanese markets, I shall do so anyway. Due to both weakness in the underlying markets and the yen, Japanese stocks will be a poor investment in the short run. However, barring a much worse than expected nuclear incident, Japanese stocks will present a good buying opportunity for those who do not have qualms on speculation in such incidents. The sell-off has been and will continue to be fairly uniform as will be the inevitable short-term recovery and EWJ is a decent way to play that after a few more days. Unfortunately, Japan still has serious long-term structural issues that need resolving and the debt incurred as a necessary expense to rebuild from this disaster will only make matters worse. Hopefully, the international community will not simply leave Japan to its own devices because it is a "rich" country.

I do not endorse this form of speculation as I generally find it distasteful, but in case anyone has the urge to do so, that is my best guess at the moment.