Japans 'monetaire experiment' heeft voorspelbare resultaten

Japan's bold monetary experiment is producing entirely predictable results: liquidity driven soaring equity prices and the sinking yen. It will take more time to see the impact of all that on the real economy. The policy change is much too recent. The new leadership took over at the Bank of Japan on March 20, 2013, and the 10.3 trillion yen ($100 billion) stimulus package, announced on January 11, 2013, is unlikely to have led to instant, "shovel-ready," infrastructure projects.

It follows, then, that the economy's 3.5 percent gain in the first quarter is a result of monetary and fiscal policies conducted in the course of last year. That obvious fact is a politically awkward credit to the government of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which was soundly defeated last December, and to the retired Governor Masaaki Shirakawa's tenure at the Bank of Japan. But, as the saying goes, that's the way the ball bounces.