Just a reminder about Abenomics in Japan

Unemployment is at 3.7 per cent. Recently, it has been as low as 3.5 per cent, considered by some economists to be pretty much full employment.

That’s one big reason why all that stimulus just won’t have all that much oomph.  It is odd how rarely you hear this mentioned, perhaps because “free lunch” thinking is back in vogue these days.  The entire piece, by David Pilling at the FT, is interesting, it focuses on job market polarization in Japan.  Here is on bit on that:

Outside the ranks of the protected “job-for-lifers” – a much rarer breed these days – nearly 40 per cent of workers are about as flexible as you get. They work in poorly paid jobs for hourly rates. Benefits are all but non-existent. For most of these workers, sometimes referred to as the “precariat”, unemployment is a mere “sayonara” away.