> Financial Times - May 4, 1999
> DEPRESSED ABOUT JAPAN
> Paul Krugman
>
> The trouble with Japan, in other words, is that while key policymakers now
> understand the nature of their problems, they still lack the intellectual
> courage to act on that understanding.
Good for Japan. Krugman's argument is, frankly, a bunch of neoliberal crap. Japan has a net surplus of 800 billion euros vis-a-vis the USA, has cash reserves of 2.7 trillion euros, is successfully bailing out its banks and granting its industrial base plenty of time and credit to restructure for the Long Boom. The whole thing verges perilously close to the racist "poor-weak-sarariman-not-able-to-wield-White-Male-Rentier- Phallus" stereotype retailed by our bourgeoisie in the Seventies, i.e. claiming that Japan could never compete in luxury cars, high-tech chips or electronics -- segments they now co-own, along with the EU. If only Japanese elites starting firing people left and right, went deep into hock to foreign countries, and trashed real wages, why, everything would be all right!
Still, I find it interesting that Krugman expresses frustration that *Japan just won't listen to us anymore*. That's a good sign.
-- Dennis