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Shinzo Abe’s Japan is the most recent and ambitious experiment in Keynesian pump-priming to reflate a stagnant economy. It’s been watched with keen anticipation by politicians, bankers, and policymakers in Europe and elsewhere frustrated by the failure of austerity to restore growth in their own economies to pre-recession levels. But now hope for a Japanese recovery is turning to disappointment, as its economy once again begins to contract. While prices have risen and unemployment has dropped, consumer spending and the domestic economy continue to languish. As in all of the advanced capitalist countries, the decline in Japanese mass purchasing power has mainly resulted from the shift from regular employment to precarious part-time, casual, and contract work, driven in large part by the relocation of production abroad and the corresponding weakening of trade unions which have historically led the way for a general increase in living standards. Here’s a link to a good summary of the current angst about Abenomics by Edward Hugh, a British economist and blogger now resident in Catalonia. http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/does-abenomics-work-the-doubts-grow/ ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
