I missed this, from Adam Posen, about how we should stop thinking of Japan as a cautionary tale and learn lessons from its successes. Completely agree 1/ https://www.ft.com/content/f478f51f-2900-4558-bf0f-d224453e88bf">https://www.ft.com/content/f...

Back in the 90s some of us looked at Japan and worried that the rest of us could experience similar problems 2/ https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/its-baaack-japans-slump-and-the-return-of-the-liquidity-trap/">https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-arti...

Which indeed we did. And here& #39;s the thing: we handled those problems worse, turning to fiscal austerity much too soon and experiencing mass unemployment in a way the Japanese never did 3/

When you look at Japanese growth numbers, you need to take demographics into account; GDP per working-age adult has held up fine over the long run 4/

Maybe Western economists who were so critical of Japan circa 2000, myself included, should go to Tokyo and apologize to the emperor. Not that they did great; but we did much worse 5/