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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
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/
Which indeed we did. And here'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/
