Economic security

The US has been left alone to drive the world economy; China should help out

As always, America’s close friends and allies – Japan and Germany – will continue their free riding on the U.S. economy, and will make no net contribution to growth and employment in the rest of the world.

With a 0.6% average annual growth in the year to last June, Japan’s finance ministry announced last week that it was not considering measures to prop up its sluggish economy. Undeterred, punters went on betting about large support packages – probably one of those where it is impossible to decipher what is, as the Japanese say, a “clear water” stimulus and what is just a meaningless numbers game.

Germany, the indisputable pace-setter of the European economy, keeps saying the same thing: There is no need for any support to its recessionary economy, which is expected to stagnate in the months ahead.

Adding Japan to the German-run Europe, one gets a quarter of the world economy that wants to live off exports – which amount to $1.1 trillion dumped on the U.S. and China in 2018.