Japan's new shade of grey and American real economic scorecard

David Pilling argues in FT that there are some changes in Japan although the problems that any new PM would be facing seem very daunting to tackle.

One is the business model. Although the economic growth is still very slow, businesses become much healthier. Old Keiretsu system has changed and resulted in the decrease of cross-share holdings and the increase in foreign ownership.

Another one is the strengthening of civil society with better information disclosure and sweeping reforms of the legal system, including the start of jury trials.

'Some of these changes have little to do with government. Many have been precipitated by the private sector or private citizens. The sense of national drift owes partly to the fact that Japan’s political system is in a netherworld between the certainties of “one-party democracy” and the uncertainties of what comes next.'

Are Americans really better or worse off? That's the question that probably there is no easy answer, but Samuelson from the Newsweek discovers some issues beneath the statistic data recently released by American Census Bureau in this story.

'For most Americans, living standards are increasing, albeit slowly, over any meaningful period. But rising health spending is eroding take-home pay, and immigrants are boosting both poverty and the lack of health insurance. Unless we control health spending and immigration, the economic report card will continue to disappoint. Unfortunately, neither Obama nor McCain seriously addresses these problems. '

The reason that neither Obama nor McCain would like to talk about it publicly probably can be explained by the culture of politics in the US; that is, avoiding those unsayable issues. The problems are there, but it's better not to touch it since there is no direct and simple solutions to them.