Japan

The danger of Japan's current policy (Abenomics) is that the outcome could turn out to be the exact opposite of what was originally intended. With wages stagnant, these import-driven price increases are hitting the Japanese consumer quite…

Yen weakness has not generated the expected benefits and import demand has grown considerably

My contention has been that global growth is accelerating. Backing that up, yesterday I looked at four economies where growth has been good. Only in Sweden were we seeing renewed weakness. Today, I want to look at four economies where…

Five central banks from high income countries meet this week: Australia, Canada, Norway, Britain, and the euro area. None are expected to announce a change in policy – but if there is a surprise, it would most likely come from the The US…

Drawing on research by the IMF's Hites Ahir and Prakash Loungani, the chart compares the house-price-to-rent ratio compared with the historical average. This is a standard measure of valuation. Clearly by such a metric, the recovery in…

The most recent economic data have been a bit soft. Below I take a brief look at what the data flow seems to be saying

There are four main forces shaping the immediate investment climate and these remain essential unchanged: 1) Fed tapering not expected until late Q1 14. 2) ECB will likely take additional action to ease financial conditions and…

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, policy makers’ aversion to fiscal policy is still large. So monetary policy rules the roost. With developed economies burdened by low growth, unemployment, and high levels of debt, monetary agents…

debt matters, even if it is possible to pretend for many years that it doesn’t (and this pretense was made possible by the implicit capitalization of debt-servicing costs). Japan never really wrote down all or even most of its investment…

I was just re-reading Richard Werner’s initial quantitative easing scheme for Germany from 1995. What he says is relevant to today’s situation in Europe and the United States as well as for today’s Japan. I want to highlight a few lines…