
Japan, Refutation of Neoliberalism (2005) - IsaacL
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue23/Locke23.htm
======
s_q_b
>This is a formidable set of potential liars, equipped with money, technical
expertise, transnational reach and state power. The Japanese government is
centralized, elitist, and quite capable of fudging statistics if it wants,
particularly since there are few Westerners who understand Japanese
accounting. National accounting is notoriously susceptible to creative
accounting anyway, as the world learned at the time of the Asian Crisis of
1998. So the assumption that the standard published figures about Japan’s
economy are true is dubious at best.

I'm very skeptical of any theory which requires me, from the outset, to assume
that all the published statistics are deliberate lies.

~~~
enoch_r
There are quite a few other bright red flags here. For example:

\- the author claims that the growth of net exports is incompatible with a
stagnating economy, because the economy is "export-centered." In 2012,
Japanese exports were worth around $800 billion; Japanese GDP was almost $6
trillion. I don't find it particularly unbelievable that 15% of the economy
can do better than the other 85%.

\- the author claims that "although a declining Japanese economy would imply a
declining yen, the reverse has been the case." This is one of those things
that drives economists crazy. Non-economists associate "strong" currency with
economic "strength" essentially because it feels right. But there is _no_
reason to expect this relationship in reality. The USD became 30% more
valuable between 1930 and 1932--that was not an indicator of economic
strength. Inflation expectations for the USD fell dramatically during and
after the financial crisis--that was not an indicator of economic strength.
(In fact, the persistently low rate of inflation in Japan is a sign of low
aggregate demand.)

~~~
calibraxis
Wallerstein's explanation of the overall greater advantages of a strong
currency: ([http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/05/the-sinking-
dollar-w...](http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/05/the-sinking-dollar-
wallerstein.html))

------
joyeuse6701
Very interesting, I'd love to hear an update on the author's views several
years after he's penned that.

