Japan’s infrastructure… while playing with the map of Japan, I noticed that given the huge amounts of money Japan has spent “on stimulus infrastructure” there are amazingly few cars or trucks on their highways. I noticed the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line bridge / tunnel – which was built in the 1990s at the cost of about $11 billion had virtually no traffic of any kind (in Google Maps). Perhaps it was just the time of day it was taken, but….
John Batchelor and his economist type guests frequently point to Japan trying to spend its way to prosperity in the 1990s through make work infrastructure projects is why the Obama approach is doomed to fail. It is creating debt for temporary employment, which does not create wealth. Japan has still not recovered, and with its aging population is likely to have some serious challenges in its economic future
