> receipts then where is the growth? Japanese corporations are doing well,
> the trade surplus is in excellent, eminently enviable shape, and yet there
> is no economic growth. Why not? Money is free, the government is running
> surpluses, industry is exporting far more than it's importing, so why no
> growth?
In terms of GDP, growth in the high-tech sectors is being counterbalanced, for now, by contraction in the medium and low-tech sectors. Financially, though, Japan continues to rack up vast trade surpluses, and is sitting on maybe a third of the world-system's liquidity. When you're a global creditor, you can afford to sit back and harvest the returns of other people's GDP growth. And as for the Japanese inability to innovate ultra-high-tech products -- can you say, "Emotion Engine"?
-- Dennis