Japanese Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Japanese Economy - Essay Example An important indicator of that achievement is that Japan continues to be the only non-western nation to have had the ambition of ruling the world and the only non-western country to have implemented a policy of attempting to subjugate the whole world in modern history. Japanese economy has been described as a success in 1980s but the decade of the 1990s was a lost decade. However, data indicate that situation may have to be more accurately described. For instance, in Figure 1, we see that if gross domestic product or GDP per capita figures are not adjusted for inflation, it would appear that Japanese economy appears to be alright until the mid-1990s. However, beginning in the mid-1990s, the Japanese economy appeared to have plunged downward and started to recover sometime at the beginning of the 21st century, if not for the Fukushima nuclear and tsunami disasters of 2011. Figure 1 is a graph from the website of the Intellectual Takeout while Figure 2 is my own reconstruction of Japan’s GDP in $ at current prices based on data set of the International Monetary Fund. At least for Japan, the insight that can be obtained based on the GDP per capita in $ is that the key insight that can be developed from Figure 1 is correct: Japanese economy was on a steady rise from 1980 to around 1995 but nose-dived before slowly recovering upward. Figure 3 compare the GDP per capita in current US$ of select countries and compare them with Japan. It is worth noting that Figure 3 suggests that in terms of GDP per capita, the overall context is that Japan still belongs to the bigger league of strong nations although Japan has been weaker in the last several years. In contrast, China may be a big economy (and some report the economy as the second biggest economy) but in GDP per capita dollar terms, the citizens of Japan appear to be in a better situation than China. Meanwhile, the key insight that can be derived from Figure 4 is that globally, the

The program Meet the Press with David Gregory Assignment

The program Meet the Press with David Gregory - Assignment Example He further stated that this was a great mistake on the part of President Obama, and may cost his party the November elections. He also stated that the reforms would not come into effect until 2014, but that the tax increases and Medicare cuts would go into effect as soon as the bill was passed. On a similar note, in the debate between Republican National Committee Michael Steele said that the bill was clearly a form of government takeover, and was against all that America stood for, therefore, the outrage against it is legitimate. He, however, did admit that some steps by the Tea Party Activists were excessive and not supported by the Republican Party, like the racial and bigoted comments made to some of the Congressmen. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine supported the bill and said that the people’s support would be won once the bill came into effect and people saw the benefits of the reforms, because in essence people wanted all of this, but were misled by the statements of the Republicans. However, both of them, in answer to David Gregory’s question, said that they were hopeful for bipartisan agreement on future projects/bills, with Tim Kaine citing an article by two Senators, that talked about a bipartisan agreement on the issue of immigratio n reform. Chuck Todd had some reservations about the purported success of the program. Whereas Democrat Anita Dunn and Republican Ed Gillespie, true to their party affiliations, stuck to their party’s stance on the issue. Democrat Anita Dunn pointed out that healthcare reform has been an issue for the past century, and it is brave of President Obama to try to tackle it head-on. She said that the winners in the scenario would be the Americans who will no longer need to be worried about their insurance and that the Republicans were using scare tactics to get the people into believing things about the healthcare bill that are not true. Ed Gillespie  stated that the decision of President Obama will be historic, but in the sense that it is a bad one.