A newspaper headline tells me 'Pace of growth picks up in Japan." The actual figures bear out the statement. Japan's real GDP registered a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.2 percent in the July-September quarter. The Japanese economy is expanding.

But is it? Take a look at the nominal GDP figures and one finds that by this measure, the quarter-on-quarter growth rate was a negative 0.1 percent. It's a tiny figure, admittedly, but clearly a shrinkage nonetheless.

So what is happening? Is the Japanese economy growing or isn't it? Are the real figures unreal? Are the nominal figures not nominal? Is it that the real is nominal and that the nominal is real? The mind boggles.