optimism that it enters the realm of fantasy. ....hopefully kickstart growth.... forsooth. That 'lost decade' for Japan is just the starting one of an unending progression, and will be replicated in all the industrialised countries. As I have just posted on the William Keegan thread: If by 'economy' you mean 'rampant consumerism and GDP-as-we-have-pursued-it', that 'economy' was inevitably tipping into a downward spiral anyway. The resources to sustain it are not coming to hand as easily as hitherto. But, properly faced up to, that is no bad thing. There are many feasible scenarios ('alternative futures') that can be depicted in which Quality of Life increases within the resources available. Unfortunately, there is a lack of leadership in doing that 'facing up to'. Politicians work to such a short time scale that they are incapable of looking at the long-term picture, and academics work in such narrow specialisms that they have no breadth of vision. There'll come a time, a century or two hence, when the History teachers show the video that we left behind us and explain that for about 300 to 350 years there were abundant supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas being collected from within Earth and those who were in a position to put them to use had a beano. They will also tell of the later development of Moral Economy, when strategies to cope with exitting from industrialism/capitalism/consumerism were having to be developed. Some of the video from some places during that transition time may