Public finances are melting down in Europe, in America and of course Japan. The situation is going nuclear, left, right and center. It's not so much China Syndrome as it is Global Syndrome.

Operators manning those fiscal reactors ought to have vented their radioactive gases a long time ago. Nobody seems to have thought about preparing for that particular contingency, however. No manual seems to exist on how to let the steam out of government budgets that are rapidly overheating. A hydrogen explosion in public finances was never supposed to happen. It was unthinkable.

Thinking the unthinkable is prohibited. Since it tempts fate to do so, it should never be done. in Japan, such things come under the heading of "soteigai."