I lived in Japan 2000 through 2002. The Japan Times, an English language newspaper, printed many editorials and articles about the crisis of “deflation” and the efforts of the BoJ.

I was appalled to read repeatedly about how terrible it was that the Japanese people saved money (rather than spending it right away) and how that high rate of saving had crippled the economy. Printing money and eliminating any possibility of interest earned on savings were deliberate efforts to reduce the savings rate by destroying the confidence of the citizens in their currency so they would “spend it while it still had any value.”

I was pleased to get a couple of letters to the editor published refuting this deliberate self-immolation, but I don’t think it did any good. After all, they were “experts”.

Curt-