Wall Street Journal (May 20)
2011/ 05/ 23 by jd in Global News
Japan is back in recession and the problem is bigger than the quake. “The earthquake wrought considerable damage, but Japan was ailing months earlier.” GDP data for the last quarter of 2010 was revised downward from a slight contraction of 0.3% to a pronounced contraction of 0.8%. Politicians should be especially wary of measures, such as hiking the consumption tax, which might further dampen consumer spending. “Japan doesn’t have to suffer another lost decade. But it will unless the effort to rebuild earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged areas is accompanied by an effort to rebuild broken confidence.”
