Jim’s video from Tokyo – cup noodles, lessons about QE from the Edo period, and the fiscal multiplier effect

Last week Jim attended the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Tokyo. For Bond Vigilantes, he took the camera along and documented his trip. Jim told me that the IMF and World Bank meetings, and even more the conversations and debates beyond the formal schedule, gave him some interesting food for thought. With the fiscal cliff arising and the UK’s failing experiment with austerity, Olivier Blanchard’s views around fiscal multiplier effects have been quite thought provoking. But not only has the conference helped shape his views, Tokyo itself has been inspiring. Much seems to be genuinely different, but at the same time there are many things that make you think Japan might be leading the way for the rest of the developed world.

Postscript: Anyone who was expecting further insights from Jim’s research trips into national sports will be disappointed. This time he didn’t bother to sight new football talent after his lack of success in Brazil. And he still prefers cricket over baseball…