In calling the latest of what's been a five-year flurry of election after election, Shinzo Abe admitted what households have long known: Abenomics is a dud.
If the prime minister's three-pronged assault on deflation were working, Japan wouldn't need the ¥2 trillion package his Liberal Democratic Party is cobbling together. The government's success at monetary easing, fiscal loosening and deregulation would, by now, be removing bureaucratic headwinds, encouraging a startup wave and prodding executives to fatten paychecks.
In September 2013, Abe captivated the investment world's imagination with his talk of big bangs and shock therapy at the New York Stock Exchange. "Buy my Abenomics!" he urged traders, and they sure did. That year alone, the Nikkei 225 average surged 57 percent. When Abe returned to the world's most famous trading floor recently, his message fell flat. His pledge to "single-mindedly ... take action to reform Japan's economic structure from the foundation up" stuck New Yorkers as odd. Uhhhh, then what exactly have you been doing since December 2012?