The curse of defeatism

摘要

Judging by the shrill com-ments from Wall Street, Japan's biggest problem is its huge public-sector debt, which has grown to nearly twice the size of the country's gdp. But it isn't (see page 84). Far more pressing is deflation.rnOn November 20th the new government of Yukio Ha-toyama acknowledged what has been obvious for months: that prices are falling again after a three-year hiatus. This is worrying not just for Japan; countries such as America and Britain have more similarities with Japan than is commonlyrnacknowledged (see page 85). Sadly neither the Hatoyama administration nor the central bank has shown any intention of tackling the latest incarnation of the deflationary curse.