consolidated balance sheet

With Shinzo Abe’s radical economic policy shift now one year old, now is an appropriate time to look back and assess its effectiveness. I see results principally in asset prices and to a degree on inflation. However, it is not clear that…

A rout in global equities is taking shape with the decline led by Japan and emerging markets. Japan is now in bear market territory, with shares down over 20% from the high. But emerging markets are my main worry because of the real…

The Bank of Japan is now considering whether to move to balance sheet expansion in its bid to lift the Japanese economy out of deflation. Japanese policy, which will then further tighten the nexus between fiscal and monetary policy, is now…

The weekly post on Monday was on the new Japanese LDP Prime Minister Abe's threat to strip the Bank of Japan of its independence as a central bank. The thrust of his threat goes to  the integration of monetary and fiscal policy to create a…

The private sector (particularly the household sector) is overly indebted. The level of debt households now carry cannot be supported by income at the present levels of consumption. The natural tendency, therefore, is toward more…

The Fed’s announcement of a renewed commitment to Quantitative Easing has been well telegraphed and the market’s reaction is likely to be subdued. We are in a “liquidity trap,” where interest rates or trillions in asset purchases may…