[snooker]

" ... Remember Japan Inc? "

Yep I remember it. It all started back in the 70s. Japan Inc. like all the other state run economies were going to rule the world. Effeciency, we don't need no stinking effeciency. Unemployment, we don't have none. We are going to divide up the market for everything, pool our resources and rule the world. And so it went, well at least for 10 years or so. Then something happened. They couldn't manage everything, imbalances showed up, no free market forces to compensate, TILT DOWN SHE WENT.

Another socialist pie in the sky bites the dust. So why do we care? We don't. Unless and until the Japanese government let's go of Japan's economy they will stay in this neverland limbo state. The problem is the government promise of paradise has jacked up prices far beyond reality in Japan. So something got to give.

[patriciaruth]

Unless and until the Japanese government let's go of Japan's economy they will stay in this neverland limbo state.

Maggie Thatcher sold off the British government owned industries in the eighties. It hurt the coal miners like hell for the government to admit that many of their coal mines were just sucking money in subsidies and never able to break even, let alone make a profit. 70,000 miners lost their jobs, but their pain and those of others in the other industries cut loose helped save England's economy.

Deregulation here in the eighties did the same thing, as a company regulated to the point where it is illegal for a competitor to cut prices, is essentially a state run economy.

Now we are going to see if free market enterprise capitalism has more resilence than socialism.

But counting on our export market to rise in the face of a world economy that hasn't the spare change to buy our stuff may be foolish.

We are going to be affected by the world economy. I am hoping that the return of cheaper oil will help ease the blows all over the globe, not just here at home.