OT re Japan:
They've tried reducing interest rates to zero.
They've tried exporting their way out of their downturn.
They've tried deficit spending, to the point of piling up so much government debt, their debt ratings are in trouble.
At this point, they've tried everything else, other than systemic reform.
They've been down for a decade, with no end in sight.
If they aren't motivated yet, what will it take?
Perhaps they look at what happened to the Soviet Union, and think, "once we start on fundamental reform, the process will get out of hand, and everything will collapse into chaos." This is actually a legitimate fear, there is so much cross-holding, the corporations and banks and government supporting each other and interdependant, that perhaps once you started "clearing the books", it wouldn't end till everyone was insolvent. |
