Tag - us-economy

 
 

US ECONOMY

Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 24, 2014
BOJ may keep easing in place for 'some time' to slay deflation: Kuroda
The Bank of Japan may have to pursue its aggressive monetary policy easing for "some time" to fully vanquish deflation, BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2014
Building economic society driven by human values
The world is groping for a new growth structure to replace the economic society led by financial activities. A new model should be driven by the pursuit of human values.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2014
Worrying economic signs
The government must determine whether the slump in consumer spending during the April-June quarter is temporarily the result of the reaction to the three-percentage-point rise in the consumption tax, or reflects the Abe administration's policy failure.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 14, 2014
Megabanks' $800 billion cash pile shows Abe must free up credit
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has succeeded in wrestling down the yen and snapping a 15-year deflationary spiral. The challenge of spurring lending by the country's cash-hoarding megabanks remains.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 13, 2014
Japan's economy suffers biggest decline since 2011 as tax hike bites
The Japanese economy suffered its biggest contraction since the March 2011 earthquake in the second quarter of this year as the hike in sales tax to 8 from 5 percent took a heavy toll on household spending, stoking fears that any rebound may be too modest to sustain a solid recovery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Aug 11, 2014
Japan tallies weak yen as prices rise without export gain
It was called "endaka" — a Japanese term for currency strength that sapped the economy — and reversing it was supposed to help end deflation and stoke growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2014
Europe may have weathered financial storm, but aging society will need structural reform
Europe may have weathered the financial storm, but elected leaders face a daunting task enacting structural reforms of labor markets, pension systems and taxes to restore growth.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 30, 2014
Sony's fall could be great news for Abenomics
Once the pride of Japan, Sony is now a cautionary case study in complacency and mismanagement. But its latest stumble could turn out to be great news for the world's No. 3 economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2014
Growth India can live with
India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, seems committed to boosting India's competitiveness by improving its business climate. What his plan lacks, though, is a strong focus on expanding labor-intensive industries.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2014
Success of Chinese reform is key to BRICS' rise
Last week, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) took a decisive step toward building institutions that could plausibly challenge the long geopolitical and economic ascendancy of the West. But Vladimir Putin's posturing at the meeting just hours before a Malaysia Airlines jetliner was shot down in Ukraine was one indication of the group's inability to offer an acceptable moral and political alternative to Western hegemony.
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2014
Silver lining to labor shortage
Labor shortages in Japan are becoming increasingly problematic amid the current economic recovery, particularly for those sectors where rising wage costs result in lost sales and even bankruptcy — despite rising consumer demand.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2014
Japan's innovation challenge
The Abe administration's capacity for deciding how to raise the birthrate, improve child-care facilities, realize an appropriae work-life balance and promote other 'innovations' that enable Japan to solve its many problems is now being tested.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014
Thomas Piketty with Chinese characteristics
As property prices have risen faster than wages and profits in manufacturing, China's top 1 percent income earners are accumulating wealth significantly faster than their counterparts in the rest of the world — and far faster than the average Chinese.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2014
Getting multiple tax rates to fly
The ruling coalition parties are trying to decide whether to introduce a reduced consumption tax on some daily necessities when the current 8 percent rate rises to 10 percent in October 2015.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2014
Is EU ready to actually change?
After six decades of relentless — if incremental — integration, might the European Union be about to go into reverse?

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami