It's as if a new continent has been discovered after all - a continent without land. All of the continents we live upon, including Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Australia, are part of an established geopolitical environment. In the old world, national economies are rooted in the ownership of land, as well as in the use of machines and capital. On these continents, each nation's economy is distinct from every other's and economic activity is linked by the flows of tariffs and taxes. In the old world, macroeconomics and microeconomics are separate endeavors.
Government leaders run their economies and are responsible for inflation, money supply and jobs.
Here, the notion of Japan or America as economic aggressor is simply a cartographic illusion - a misperception that comes from the false idea that national borders reflect political autonomy. Corporations, regional governments, nations and nonprofits no longer occupy separate worlds. It may seem fanciful to call these environments old and new continents, but it turns out to be a useful metaphor with which to portray the mental model that successful businesspeople and politicians use to describe the two environments in which they operate. These two habitats occupy the same literal space, but exist in different dimensions. You cannot exist in both at once, but you can switch rapidly from one to the other - if you know how.