It's All Japanese to Me

By Davidduff

They describe economics as 'the dismal science' and it's hard to disagree when you read an article posted at Zero Hedge by  Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man blog concerning the condition - nigh unto death's door! - of the Japanese economy.  It really is quite extraordinary when I look back to the '60s, '70s and '80s when Japan was promising to rule the economic earth.  It simply could not do anything wrong - it made what we all wanted at prices we could afford and its family-centred people worked hard and saved for their futures.  Where did it all go wrong - and how did it go wrong?

It has been stuck in the economic doldrums for decades now and the emergence of a new prime minister offered, dare I say, 'hope 'n' change' - yeeeeees, quite!  In essence, Mr. Abe followed the lead of the early Mr. Keynes (he changed his mind later, I believe) and simply let the printing presses rip which meant that his government could borrow as much money as they could print!  Do you see a teensy-weensy flaw in that idea?  Anyway, acording to Mr. Tenebrarum, this economic version of a self-perpetuating machine, is doomed to failure - and it might be fairly soon.  This is doubly unfortunate given that I was rather hoping that Japan would act as something of counter-threat to Chinese ambitions.  Well, she won't be much of one if she goes bankrupt!