Word: economisters
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...When economists talk about such matters, they focus on the concept of productivity. "Productivity growth," wrote economist (and now Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist) Paul Krugman back in 1990, "is the single most important factor affecting our economic well-being." It was growth in productivity - most commonly measured as economic output per hour worked - during the Industrial Revolution that powered the rise of the West out of millenniums of stagnation. It was a productivity boom that ushered in America's postwar era of mass affluence...
...failures of Yamato Life Insurance Co., one of the country's major insurers, and New City Residence Investment Corp. a real estate investment trust (REIT), government officials are pushing to reactivate the law as a precautionary measure. "Huge storms are coming to Japan from abroad," says Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan. "It's not a bad idea to set up those laws to avoid or minimize the worst situation...
...stock-market bubbles burst. The government says it currently plans to take a localized approach to intervention to make sure weaknesses it sees chiefly in regional banks don't develop into a systemic infection. Japan's regional banks don't appear to be facing an immediate crisis, say economists, but the government wants to be prepared. "It's a safety net for smaller institutions," says Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Securities...
...Smaller lenders are increasingly under stress due to the country's stumbling economy and growing competition with new banks set up by the ongoing privatization of Japan's postal system, which for decades acted as a government-run banking system. Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse Japan, says that several regional banks have also been hurt by investments in securities sold by the bankrupt Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers, and by soured subprime-related securities holdings...
...economy could remain sluggish for several years, weighed down by debt levels. "It was transfusions of credit that made the economy buoyant, but if there's no growth from credit now, what will support the economy in the longer term?" worries Véronique Riches-Flores, chief European economist at Société Générale in Paris...