Wall Street Journal (April 4)
“Japan is joining much of the world in facing weaker economic growth, but in one respect it’s unique. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems determined to make it worse by imposing a tax increase later this year.”
Tags: Abe, Economic growth, Japan, Tax increase, Weak
Washington Post (November 18)
Shinzo Abe reached two difficult, but “justifiable” decisions. He will postpone the tax increase and seek a new mandate. “The prime minister still represents the best available option to those who regard Japan’s recovery as indispensable to the global economy and, by extension, the U.S. economy.” The U.S. should “do more to support Japan’s economic recovery,” beginning with the passage “of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, whose market-opening provisions could spur Japanese farms and businesses to change their uncompetitive ways.”
Tags: Abe, Farms, Global economy, Japan, Justifiable, Mandate, Market opening, Recovery, Tax increase, TPP, U.S., Uncompetitive
Wall Street Journal (October 2)
The rise in Japan’s consumption tax is an unwelcome return to the old “tax and spend” playbook. Of the estimated $88 billion in revenue, over $50 billion is marked for spending as stimulus. “More rapid and durable economic growth is the only escape from Japan’s self-constructed fiscal trap. Mr. Abe still has a chance to rescue his economic program with a new reform plan, the long-awaited ‘third arrow.’ But with his tax increase he is creating another headwind to overcome.”
Tags: Abe, Consumption tax, Economic growth, Fiscal trap, Headwind, Japan, Reform, Revenue, Stimulus, Tax and spend, Tax increase, Third arrow
New York Times (August 5)
“The latest quarterly report on economic growth showed real G.D.P. up only 1.4 percent over the past year, a marked slowdown from year-over-year growth rates posted in 2012. Much of the weakening can be attributed to self-imposed wounds, including the fiscal-cliff showdown at the end of last year and this year’s payroll tax increase and automatic budget cuts, whose effects now appear likely to carry into the second half of the year.” The recovery could stall as the report suggests “Americans do not have the requisite economic security to absorb those imminent blows, let alone other inevitable setbacks, including another possible standoff over the nation’s debt limit.”“The latest quarterly report on economic growth showed real G.D.P. up only 1.4 percent over the past year, a marked slowdown from year-over-year growth rates posted in 2012. Much of the weakening can be attributed to self-imposed wounds, including the fiscal-cliff showdown at the end of last year and this year’s payroll tax increase and automatic budget cuts, whose effects now appear likely to carry into the second half of the year.” The recovery could stall as the report suggests “Americans do not have the requisite economic security to absorb those imminent blows, let alone other inevitable setbacks, including another possible standoff over the nation’s debt limit.”
Tags: Budget cuts, Debt limit, Fiscal cliff, G.D.P., Security, Setbacks, Slowdown, Standoff, Tax increase, U.S.
