JG writes: From my Internet crawling of late I’ve noticed that this is an emergent policy preference of the liberal-pwog think tank outfits, in the wake of high-profile levee failures and bridge collapses… strange indeed to hear it endorsed by a source such as the FT… of course the DLC “twins” (to use the auspicious phrasing of Glen Ford) are not biting. In actual factual reality though, might such an initiative amount to pork for cost-plus contractors such as Bechtel and Halliburton, or whatever the Dem patronage equivalent might be. With thousands of miles of unnecessarily concrete-lined rivers and coastlines, that’s certainly how it played out here in Japan… in a somewhat different “iron triangle” context to be sure. MP posted: [I found this kind of a fascinating take on Japanese macro policy in the 90s, which I've never heard anything but disparaged in the West. I'm not sure it offers a workable model to the US even theoretically, though, since our fiscal balance and external balance and currency value starting points couldn't be more opposite.] January 23 2008Financial Times Insight: Japan's lessons could ease crisisBy Richard Koo The echoes are eerie. Ben Bernanke's gradual change of tone during the past year and this week's massive cut in interest rates seems to parallel that of Japanese officials back in 1992. At that time, an initial period of denial was replaced by the shocking realisation that the damage caused by the bursting of the bubble could take years to repair. _________________________________________________________________ Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008