There are two words that should strike fear in the hearts of any rational-thinking citizen of the world – Paul Krugman. Wondering why? As Alhambra’s Jeff Snider notes, we already know of at least one respect where Krugman (as a stand-in at least for the Keynesian perspective that is somehow still widely shared, especially in the orthodox economist class) has impacted ‘stimulus’ activity, Sweden. And now his appearance in Japan enabled what Japanese economists call a “historic meeting,” as Bloomberg reportsthat Abe met with the Nobel-prize winner for 40 minutes who “helped the prime minister make up his mind,” that delaying the fiscally-responsible tax-hikes was the right thing to do (and increasing QQE) or Japan “wouldn’t escape deflation.” Mission Accomplished… and if it fails, moar will be needed and ‘capitalism’ will be blamed.
As Bloomberg reports, with a December deadline approaching, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was considering whether to go ahead with a 2015 boost to the consumption levy. Evidence was mounting that the world’s third-largest economy was struggling to shake off the blow from raising the rate in April, which had triggered Japan’s deepest quarterly contraction since the global credit crisis…
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 11/21/2014.
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