By William Pesek

If any policymaker is thanking his lucky stars over Donald Trump’s victory, it’s Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda. The yen’s plunge since the U.S. president-elect shocked the world on Nov. 8 gave Abenomics a second wind. November was the worst month since 1995 for a currency that has fallen 11 percent since the last […]

    Shinzo Abe saying “I have absolutely no worries about Japan’s demography” should worry economists – none more so than Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda. Far from seeing an aging and shrinking population as a crisis, the prime minister thinks it’s a boon. The widely-held view his 127 million population will plunge below […]

Never has a Bank of Japan policy decision garnered this much global attention, nor have punters ever been so confused about what’s to come out of Tokyo. Fresh from stealing the show in Jackson Hole, Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda has engaged in some curious monetary tweaking moves. Case in point: a steepening of the yield curve […]

Haruhiko Kuroda clearly has William McChesney Martin on the brain. Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda disappointed markets Friday with a half-hearted increase in asset-buying programs. His move to boost purchases of exchange-traded funds by $58 billion fell way short of hopes for another monetary bazooka. Not by neglect, but as per Martin’s advice. Martin was […]

  As Japan stares into the abyss, Friedrich Nietzsche is staring back at it. Tokyo, after all, has the German philosopher’s what-doesn’t-kill-you-makes-you-stronger sentiment in mind as some officials insist on raising taxes in a deflationary and recession-prone economy. Japan would be crazy to do it. Households and businesses are still smarting from a 2014 sales-tax […]

Can bitcoin end Japan’s deflationary nightmare? This question may seem odd, considering Tokyo was site of the virtual currency’s biggest scandal. But as the Bank of Japan’s efforts to print trillions of dollars of cash backfire, it’s time to inject a dose of technology. The BOJ’s negative interest rate policy is a case in point. […]

Recent currency rallies across Asia make zero sense, especially considering how central banks are increasingly heading in that direction – and beyond. Consider South Korea, which led the pack in March with an 8 percent surge. Slowing economic growth? Accelerating disinflation? A sudden bubble in North Korean missile launches? Nothing, it seems, can keep the […]