Taiwan falls into recession

Taiwan has tumbled into recession, suffering a record annual fall in output at the end of last year to become east Asia’s worst-performing economy.

Japan on the Edge of the Abyss

I have to confess that I have fallen into “Japan bad news” syndrome, in that I expect bad news out of Japan and therefore did not focus enough on the details. And while I do not aspire to covering every financial news story (that’s what the MSM is for), the latest figures paint a grim picture, even by our new, desensitized standards.

It wasn’t simply that December was truly awful, but it came on top of a nearly-as-bad November. From Bloomberg:

Japanese manufacturers cut production an unprecedented 9.6 percent last month, deepening a recession that’s expected to be the worst in the postwar era.

Wages, It all gets down to wages

A strong economy must be built on a solid foundation of steadily rising wages. If wages don’t keep pace with production, the only way the economy can grow is through the expansion of debt, which leads to disaster.