Abenomics

The line from 9/11 to Lehman to Syria by Greg Ip 

How long will the divisive effects of the financial crisis last? No country is the same, and in America, polarisation has many causes that predate the crisis: rising income inequality, gerrymandering and the continued post-civil rights migration of southern voters from the Democratic to the Republican Party. But I see two plausible answers to that question when it comes to economic matters.

One, a fully recovering economy will restore private and public balance sheets, erasing the divide between creditors and debtors and obviating the need for zero-sum austerity. Or two, the economy will stagnate for years until the country coalesces behind a single, bolder vision for economic reform. I used to think Japanese voters would never vote for higher inflation because as its population ages, the proportion of voters who favour falling prices expands. Happily, I may soon be proven wrong. Shinzo Abe seems to have united the country behind a call for fiscal, monetary and structural stimulus. Japan, which showed the way in to post-crisis politics, may yet show the way out.