A look to the East, the Far East

Is it time to review Japan? Like many investors, we have been guilty of getting bored of it. Our economic view has always been pretty consensual – over the past 20 years, Japan represents a catalogue of economic mismanagement; a policy-laboratory of ‘how not to do it’. The Japanese authorities look to have exhausted their monetary policy ammunition when it comes to weakening the Yen and inflating the economy, and whatever they have done so far has failed miserably. The West is looking on with worry and for clues on how to avoid a deflationary spiral. A problematic demographic; a cultu...