You are a little-known politician who has stirred the public with promises of change. You win a thumping elec-toral victory. You succeed a tired and discredited administration whose policies helped create the worst economic crisis in decades. And then your problems start: The vested interests won’t give an inch. People seem unsure of what kind of change they want, or if they want any at all. The economy is still in bad shape, and now you are getting the blame.
Emerging markets, it seems, have had a good crisis. In contrast to the debt-ridden G7 economies, they have quickly resumed their growth trajectory. No surprise, then, that US emerging market mutual funds are experiencing record inflows. The stellar performance of the Brics markets – Brazil, Russia, Indian and China – is due to continue into the distant future.
Shabu shabu is a simple but delicious Japanese dish in which transclucently thin slices of beef are dipped into a boiling broth of vegetables and tofu. A few seconds will do; just enough for the meat to turn pinky-grey.
The Abe Administration’s key achievement was to show that Japan hasn’t changed, and neither have its problems.