Wall Street Journal (July 29)
“Abenomics represents the best—and possibly the last—chance for Japan to avert a debt crisis that could set back the global recovery once more.” Around the world, everybody should hope for the success of Abenomics. If it does, “then the world’s third-biggest economy could re-emerge as a major engine of growth at a time when Europe is stagnant and China is slowing. If it fails, then Japan’s Mount Fuji of government debt could come tumbling down, sending shock waves through the global economy.”
Tags: Abenomics, China, Debt crisis, Economy, Europe, Global recovery, Growth engine, Japan, Slowing
The Economist (June 15)
“Now Mr Abe’s eagerly awaited “third arrow” of structural reforms has fallen well short of the rings, let alone the bull’s eye. Indeed, it is so wide of the mark that one is left wondering if Abenomics has failed before it even properly began.” The disappointing third arrow consisted mainly of “old-fashioned industrial policy which has been tried, and has failed, before… Meaningful deregulation, labour-market reform and steps to make agriculture competitive in order to prepare for the TPP were all shelved. Truly bold measures, such as boosting immigration or changing the electoral system to give proper weight to young and urban voters, are off the agenda entirely.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Agriculture, Deregulation, Electoral system, Immigration, Industrial policy, Japan, Reform, Structural reforms, Third arrow, TPP
New York Times (June 10)
“Those who see Japan’s performance over the last decades as an unmitigated failure have too narrow a conception of economic success. Along many dimensions—greater income equality, longer life expectancy, lower unemployment, greater investments in children’s education and health, and even greater productivity relative to the size of the labor force—Japan has done better than the United States. It may have quite a lot to teach us. If Abenomics is even half as successful as its advocates hope, it will have still more to teach us.”
Tags: Abenomics, Children, Economic success, Income equality, Investment, Japan, Labor force, Life expectancy, Productivity, U.S., Unemployment
Washington Post (June 6)
The U.S. stands to benefit if Abenomics succeeds in strengthening its key ally in Asia. Prime Minister Abe’s first two arrows have hit their marks. The third yet-to-materialize arrow, however, has by far the hardest target of tackling the entrenched “source of Japan’s woes: a vast web of regulations, subsidies and trade barriers whose net effect has been to support inefficient sectors, and the voters who live off them, at the expense of growth and innovation. Japanese productivity has remained essentially flat for the past two decades, a dangerous state of affairs in a country with a shrinking labor force and a growing dependent elderly population.”The U.S. stands to benefit if Abenomics succeeds in strengthening its key ally in Asia. Prime Minister Abe’s first two arrows have hit their marks. The third yet-to-materialize arrow, however, has by far the hardest target of tackling the entrenched “source of Japan’s woes: a vast web of regulations, subsidies and trade barriers whose net effect has been to support inefficient sectors, and the voters who live off them, at the expense of growth and innovation. Japanese productivity has remained essentially flat for the past two decades, a dangerous state of affairs in a country with a shrinking labor force and a growing dependent elderly population.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Arrows, Asia, Japan, Regulations, Subsidies, Trade barriers, U.S.
The Economist (May 18, 2013)
Shinzo Abe is defying expectations. “He has put Japan on a regime of ‘Abenomics’, a mix of reflation, government spending and a growth strategy designed to jolt the economy out of the suspended animation that has gripped it for more than two decades. He has supercharged Japan’s once-fearsome bureaucracy to make government vigorous again.”
Tags: Abenomics, Expectations, Government, Growth strategy, Japan, Reflation, Shinzo Abe, Spending
Financial Times (April 7, 2013)
“After 20 years of hesitation Japan has stepped on to the economic tightrope. To do so is bold and necessary.” A decade earlier, the effectiveness of Abenomics would have been more certain. “As the years passed, the path that Japan must walk has narrowed, with continued deflation on one side or debt crisis on the other. That is no reason not to try. Disaster is otherwise inevitable, which is why the BOJ’s past reluctance to act was so infuriating. But there is no margin for error.”
Financial Times (March 11)
“Welcome back, Mrs Watanabe. The mythical keeper of Japan’s household savings has spent a long time in retreat, selling a net Y3.6tn of foreign securities over the past 18 months amid a strong yen and weak overseas prospects. But as the effects of “Abenomics” start to trickle down to consumers and private investors in the world’s third-largest economy – and as global recovery hopes brighten – this canny player of global currencies and interest rates has begun to stir once more.”
Tags: Abenomics, Currencies, Interest rates, Investors, Japan, Mrs. Watanabe, Securities
