There are signs, however, that Tokyo has come to regard defence exports not just as a matter of industrial policy, but also as an important element of its diplomatic strategy in a region unsettled by the rise of China. With such high stakes, Japan appears determined to overcome any obstacles.

“Working with friendly countries on equipment or technology contributes to bilateral security and defence co-operation, while joint development projects can strengthen our defence industry and technological base, raising the defence capability of our country,” says Akira Sato, state minister of defence, in an interview with the Financial Times. “Strategically, I think there are many areas Japan will want to pursue.”

In theory, Mr Abe’s move opened the international market to an estimated 3,000 private Japanese companies involved in producing military hardware and its components. No longer would the ambitions and finances of those manufacturers be inhibited by the relatively small $7 billion annual procurement budget of Japan’s Self Defence Forces — in effect their sole customer since the 1950s.

Foreign sales would lower unit costs and, critically for Japan’s own needs, keep many small, struggling suppliers in business. In reality, a more select group is likely to benefit from the lifting of the ban. Industry consultants estimate that fewer than 300 Japanese companies derive more than half their income from defence. One reason Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Komatsu, IHI and other leading contractors speak so seldom about defence is that it only represents between 1 and 11 per cent of total revenues. By contrast, the biggest US contractors draw between 60 and 90 per cent of their revenues from defence.

But now that the US dollar has been surging, those borrowers are finding that it takes much more of their own local currencies to service those loans. At the same time, prices are crashing for many of the commodities that those countries export. The exact same kind of double whammy caused the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s.

Posted below is a list that I put together of 23 nations around the world where stock market crashes are already happening.

1. Malaysia
2. Brazil
3. Egypt
4. China
5. Indonesia
6. South Korea
7. Turkey
8. Chile
9. Colombia
10. Peru
11. Bulgaria
12. Greece
13. Poland
14. Serbia
15. Slovenia
16. Ukraine
17. Ghana
18. Kenya
19. Morocco
20. Nigeria
21. Singapore
22. Taiwan
23. Thailand

Of course this is just the beginning. The western world is going to feel this kind of pain as well very soon.

The Telegraph is not just one of the most important newspapers in the UK – it is truly one of the most important newspapers in the entire world. When it speaks on financial matters, millions of people listen very carefully. So for the Telegraph to declare that the countdown to a “global market crash” is “one minute to midnight” is a very, very big deal… When one of the newspapers of record for the entire planet starts sounding exactly like The Economic Collapse Blog, then you know that it is late in the game.

Hmm – there is another example of someone talking about September. It is funny how often that month keeps coming up. And of course most of the major stock market crashes in US history have been in the fall. Just go back and take a look at what happened in 1929, 1987, 2001 and 2008. A global financial crisis has already begun. So those that were claiming that one would not happen in 2015 are already wrong. Over the coming months we will find out how bad it will ultimately be.

There are plenty of different ways to ‘value’ a market. The four most basic and widely used – price to earnings, Cape, price to book and dividend yield - are explained here. Telegraph Money's stock market map has compared these main measures of value against long-term averages. But it could also pay to look at a less familiar measure - one used by the world's most famous investor, Warren Buffett.

It calculates whether the value of a country’s stock market is worth more or less than its annual economic output. A figure of over 100 percent suggests the market is overvalued, while those that score below 50 percent are considered a bargain. AJ Bell, the broker, crunched the numbers for the 14 biggest global economies, to find out which countries are overvalued, neutral or cheap. The results show that America (133%) and Britain (124%) are the most expensive stock markets.

Russ Mould, of AJ Bell, said: “The data suggest that if corporate profits do come under pressure (owing to a recession, for example) then the US and UK markets could be left looking a bit exposed on the downside. According to Mr Buffett, once profits rise above GDP investors need to be careful. This makes sense as very few firms manage to make supra-normal returns for long: either the competition catches up with them, the customers revolt and demand lower prices or the regulator intervenes.”

In her first public comments since her summer break, Merkel told broadcaster ZDF that she was sure Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, would ensure the participation of the fund if conditions on Greekmerk pension reform and debt relief were met. "Mrs Lagarde, the chief of the IMF, made very clear that if these conditions are met, then she will recommend to the IMF board that the IMF takes part in the programme from October," Merkel said. "I have no doubts that what Mrs Lagarde said will become reality."

Uncertainty over the IMF role in the 86 billion-euro bailout has become a headache for Merkel before Wednesday's vote in the Bundestag. Lawmakers from her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), want the IMF involved because of its reputation for rigour. Volker Kauder, a close Merkel ally and the leader of her conservatives in parliament, has even described IMF involvement as a "condition" for supporting a new bailout.

In the interview, Merkel rejected the notion that Germany had driven too hard a bargain with Greece or that Berlin had been isolated in the talks on a third bailout. "It doesn't help if we are all nice with each other now, only to have a situation in two to three years where we are worse off than today. The euro crisis has already lasted too long," she said. Asked whether Berlin was striving for a "German Europe", Merkel said: "We don't want this".

Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist with the US Geological Survey, was walking through the woods last year when he noticed some of the trees he'd been studying for decades had dropped most of their leaves. He joined forces with other researchers from the USGS, as well as from the National Park Service, US Forest Service, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, to launch a comprehensive health study on the sequoia.

The punishing drought in California is about to stretch into its fifth year. The state suffered through its driest January on record this year and officials have been struggling to come up with innovative water-saving methods, including the recent introduction of millions of "shade balls" to cover a reservoir. But many scientists are worried about how the water shortage will affect many ecological elements of the state, including from residents' lawns to farmers' fields.

Iran’s venerated Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of its Islamic revolution, is credited with naming the organization. Khomeini’s “founding vision [was] the eradication of Zionism [as] an inevitable precondition for redeeming contemporary Islam” (see The Nuclear Deal: No Pause in Iran’s Vow to Destroy Israel, by Michael Segall, August 16, 2015, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs). According to Segall, Khomeini’s obsession “keeps guiding the current generation of Iran’s religious, political and military establishment.

“To him the destruction of Zionism was an axiom never to be questioned or strayed from and an objective to be perpetually and actively pursued. According to this vision, Israel should be fought as part of a protracted global struggle between Islam and the West, which ‘planted intentionally the Zionist Entity in the heart of Islamic World’.”

How important is the Quds Force? A news item currently reports the defiance of an international travel ban by the head of the organization, Qassem Souleimani, in traveling to Russia to discuss the delivery to Iran of surface-to-air missiles and other weapons. Such missiles could help protect Iran’s presumed nuclear armaments facilities.

Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei, Ayatollah Khomeini’s successor as Iran’s ultimate boss, who recently published a book called Palestine on the destruction of Israel.

Syriza's energy minister Panos Skourletis said it was now "self evident" that parliamentarians would decide on whether or not to continue supporting the government after a "deep wound" had been inflicted on the ruling coalition. Lawmakers voted to ratify a 30-page "Memorandum of Understanding" to keep the country in the eurozone for the next three years on Friday.

But the terms of the deal, which roll back a number of key pledges from the anti-austerity government, have split the ruling party. Mr Tsipras failed to get the backing of at least 120 of his own MPs, a constitutional threshold that could oblige him to trigger a vote in his leadership. In a detailed evisceration of the austerity measures, former rebel finance minister Yanis Varoufakis denounced the agreement as encapsulating "the Greek government’s humiliating capitulation". "Greek sovereignty is being forfeited wholesale" he said. "Not since the Soviet Union has wishful thinking, unsupported by anything tangible, posed as policymaking."

Support for the ruling coalition has becoming vanishingly thin. Greece's two main opposition parties - which have so far voted to keep the country in the euro - vowed to pull the plug on the embattled premier should a vote be called in the coming weeks. Pasok, the much depleted socialist opposition, joined the conservative New Democracy in refusing to endorse Mr Tsipras and his junior coalition partner, led by defence minister Panos Kammenos. "The government has signed the third and most onerous bail-out. All the negative consequences for the country and its citizens bear the signatures of Mr Tsipras and Mr Kammenos," said a Pasok party statement. "We have no confidence in the Tsipras-Kammenos government and of course will not give it if we are asked."

Take the 2008 financial crisis as a benchmark. Between June 2008 and June 2015, the euro has dropped 12.5% in value against a broad basket of currencies, according to the Bank for International Settlements. That has added to Germany’s export advantage with the rest of the world. China’s exchange rate appreciated 34% during the same period of time, hurting its trade position. The depreciation of the yuan in the past few days is a small fraction – so far at least – of the appreciation it experienced in the years since the financial crisis and of the depreciation the euro experienced.

Germany has soaked up a larger share of global output, thanks in part to the reduced value of the euro which helps its exports and restrains its imports from the rest of the world. Germany’s current account surplus – a broad measure of its excess of exports over imports – increased from 5.8% of gross domestic product in 2008 to an estimated 7.5% of GDP in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF sees Germany’s trade surplus shooting up to 8.4% of GDP in 2015.

Of course, Germany can’t be accused of manipulating its currency for a trade advantage. It is part of the euro-area currency zone controlled by the European Central Bank, and Germans have generally resisted the ECB’s easy money policies that have cheapened the euro. China might now be intentionally cheapening its currency for trade advantage as its domestic growth slows. Still, on the global stage it is Germany that has gotten the actual advantage and ought to be asked by the rest of the world: What have you done for us lately?

Anja Reschke, an anchorwoman for German public broadcaster ARD, for instance, touched off a national debate after an on-air commentary blasting refugee bashing. Soon after airing, the segment went viral, with 15 million hits and counting. In it, Reschke bluntly said what many others here have feared to — condemning the haters as well as calling out those Germans who have remained silent. To make her point, she used the terminology of the Nazi era, earning a bravo from some while angering others.

“If you’re not of the opinion that all refugees are spongers who should be hunted down, burned or gassed, then you should make that known very clearly,” she said in her commentary. The spot, she said in an interview with The Washington Post, provoked an outpouring of support — but also a flood of even fouler comments aimed at her.

“I received e-mails saying, ‘Let the hag burn’ and calling me a ‘negro-gypsy-whore,’ ” said Reschke, a white ethnic German. “And then there were the people who said, ‘Look, I’m afraid our race is getting polluted by all those evil people from the whole of Africa, but no, I’m not a Nazi.’ ”

As Europe faces a refugee crisis, Germany this year is set to accept a record number — more than 500,000. Yet Reschke's commentary came as acts of aggression against refugee homes in Germany are rapidly rising, reaching 202 so far this year compared to 198 during all of 2014.

In July, China announced official gold reserves had increased almost 60 percent since 2009, China’s central bank claimed gold reserves were 1,658 tons (53.31 million fine troy ounces) as of the end of June, up from 1,054 tons in April 2009.

Financial analyst Stephen Leeb, the author of various investment newsletters, including The Complete Investor, cited China’s history of publishing unreliable financial data. He said the Chinese estimate was calculated to understate the amount of gold Beijing’s central bank holds through its member banks. “I would be very surprised if the Chinese don’t have more gold and significantly more gold than the US claims (8,100+ tons),” Leeb said in reaction to China’s July announcement. “I certainly would not be at all surprised if the Chinese have 15,000 tons of gold.”

Fund analyst Jeffrey Borneman also notes that China has joined the London Bullion Market as a major player at the same time Beijing has moved from trading “paper gold” to trading the real metal through the Shanghai gold market. The aim is to bid up the price of gold with what Goldman calls the “Shanghai Fix.”

He argues that China’s goal is to “adjust upward” the price of gold to maximize the value of a hoard of gold it holds today, which may be more than double the amount held by the United States. “The introduction of the yuan to the SDR, coupled with China’s ability to influence the price of gold, is nothing short of a shift in the balance of power the world hasn’t seen since the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, just before the end of World War II,” Borneman wrote in a recent newsletter.

“The COMEX gold futures market in New York and the Over-the-Counter (OTC) trades cleared through the London Bullion Market Association do set prices which are followed most widely in the world. They are also markets dominated by a handful of huge players, the six London Bullion Market Association gold clearing banks — the corrupt JP MorganChase bank; the scandal-ridden UBS bank of Zurich; The Bank of Nova Scotia — ScotiaMocatta, the world’s oldest bullion bank which began as banker to the British East India Company, the group that ran the China Opium Wars; the scandal-ridden Deutsche Bank; the scandal-ridden Barclays Bank of London; HSBC of London, the house bank of the Mexican drug cartels; and the scandal and fraud-ridden Societe Generale of Paris,” Engdahl narrated.

Furthermore, Western banks are issuing numerous paper “gold-futures” and other speculative contracts which are in fact disconnected from real physical gold. In a word, operations with the precious metal in London and New York are in questionable hands, the economic researcher noted. The West's ultimate goal is to preserve the dollar's monopoly in the market thus breathing life into the US-led global financial system. But no one likes monopolists.

However, "rather than scream and cry 'fraud' at the owners of the COMEX/CME or the London Bullion Market Association Big Six clearing banks, these countries are involved in the general move to create an entirely different gold market, one that not JP MorganChase or HSBC or Deutsche Bank control, but one that China, Russia and others of a like mind control," Engdahl stressed. This new approach is connected closely with the China-led New Silk Road project and the Shanghai-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

"As China has expressed it, the aim is to enable the Eurasian countries along the Silk Road to increase the gold backing of their currencies. That sounds very much like some clear-thinking and far-sighted governments are thinking of creating a stable group of gold backed currencies that would facilitate orderly trade free from Washington currency wars," the economic researcher elaborated.