ANALYSIS & OPINION

Does Japan show us the way out of secular stagnation?

Quantitative easing may have served a purpose, but now it is an impotent policy. Worse, even though it is redundant, markets have come to depend on it and go into a tailspin whenever Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke mentions the T word -- tapering. It seems unless we are careful, Summers warns, we are going Japanese, meaning that, like Japan’s economy in the last two decades, we could find ourselves caught in a downward spiral in which falling growth chases falling prices chasing falling demand chasing falling employment.

Italy has two chances post-Berlusconi

The first is that PM Enrico Letta will push through reforms now Silvio Berlusconi has been kicked out of parliament. If not, Matteo Renzi – who is expected to become the Democrats’ leader on Sunday – should force elections and show he is as radical in deed as he is in words.

It’s time to retire Cyber Monday

With broadband now reaching almost 80 percent of U.S. homes, as well as the explosion of mobile commerce, Cyber Monday today is more of a learned Pavlovian response than a true need.