Japan's New PM Implements Economic Stimulus

choi

(1) Paul Krugman, Japan Steps Out; Guess who's breaking with orthodoxy. New York Times, Jan 14, 2013 (columinist).

Quote:

"Long before the 2008 financial crisis plunged America and Europe into a deep and prolonged economic slump, Japan held a dress rehearsal in the economics of stagnation. When a burst stock and real estate bubble pushed Japan into recession, the policy response was too little, too late and too inconsistent.

"That said, Japan never had the kind of employment and human diaster we've experienced since 2008. Indeed, our policy response has been so inadequate that I've suggested that American economists who used to be very harsh in their condemnations of Japanese policy, a group that includes Ben Bernake and, well, me, visit Tokyo to apologize to teh emperor. We have, after all, done even worse.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of the article.
(b) Dr Krugman is known for, since the financial crisis,
(i) predicting double dip (a second recession, that has not come true), (ii) and advocating huge package of stimulus in US to jolt US economy (which critics argue will do no good--because many economists do not beleive in the notion of a stimulus--but get US more into debt and revive inflation). To retort, Dr Krugman has said mild inflation would be good for US economy.
(c) Basically Dr Krugman is a died-in-the-wool Keynesian. Some considered an extremist in this regard. At any rate, teh Obama administration has steered away from his suggestions, which sometimes vexes him. (He is antiganistic toward Republicans.)


(2) Japan’s economy | Keynes, Trains and Automobiles; Can a fiscal and monetary splurge reboot Japan’s recessionary economy?  Economist, Jan 12, 2013.
http://www.economist.com/news/fi ... nary-economy-keynes

Quote:

"As promised, on January 10th Mr Abe approved a massive public-spending bonanza, expected to exceed ¥13 trillion ($150 billion)—more than was spent in emergency measures after the 2011 earthquake, and about 2.6% of GDP. Much of the cash will go towards making tunnels, railway lines and other infrastructure safer. Those are the sort of public-works projects that Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was famous for during much of post-war Japan’s history.

"The government’s supporters have christened the fiscal and monetary strategy 'Abenomics.'  But it appears to be ripped largely from John Maynard Keynes.

Note:
(a) Paragraph 1 states, "FOR 35 years the steel bolts holding up the ceiling of Sasago Tunnel, on a busy toll road west of Tokyo, were never checked. On December 2nd more than 600 of them had worked themselves so loose that a 130-metre stretch of the roof collapsed, crushing nine motorists [to death]."
(i) This is not what we were told by our teachers in Taiwan's primary schools about Japanese, whom they described as god-like in almost all aspects.
(ii) Sasago Tunnel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasago_Tunnel
(笹子トンネル Sasago Tonneru; on the border of the cities of Kōshū 甲州(市)  and Ōtsuki 大月(市) in Yamanashi Prefecture 山梨県; built in 1977)

The tonnel's official name is 新笹子隧道. "新" because there is an old one around the same place:
笹子隧道
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AC%B9%E5%AD%90%E9%9A%A7%E9%81%93
(ささごずいどう Sasago Zuidō; 1936年（昭和11年）に着工、1938年（昭和13年）に開通; 笹子峠（標高 1,096メートル）の直下を通っている)

translation of the last clause: [It got its name by passing right under the mountain pass 笹子峠.

View photo 1 to locate 笹子峠.

The kanji 隧道 can be pronounced suidō or zuidō.
(iii) Sasago tōge 笹子峠  【ささごとうげ】
* 笹子 Sasago is place name and/or surname.
* sasa 笹【ささ】 (n): "bamboo grass; generally smaller species of running bamboo that do not shed their sheaths (eg Sasa spp.)"

For its photos, go to images.google.com.

binomial nomenclature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_nomenclature
("The abbreviation 'sp.' is used when the actual specific name cannot or need not be specified. The abbreviation 'spp.' (plural) indicates 'several species'")
* tōge 峠 【とうげ】 (n): "(mountain) pass"

(b) The article says, "The architect of that [Abe's] policy is Koichi Hamada, a Yale University professor and cabinet adviser who is a former mentor (and recently tormentor) of Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of the BoJ."
(i) Kōichi HAMADA  浜田 宏一 (where the ō means the long vowel for "o")
http://www.econ.yale.edu/faculty1/hamada/right.html
(ii) Masaaki SHIRAKAWA  白川 方明