We need somebody like Mike Smitka,who starts from the nitty-gritty world, to remind us occasionally how complicated life and Japanese budgeting systems are, but

Announcements in Japan probably are greeted with cynicism at this point. Real money creating real jobs...

There are announcements and announcements. In an anglo-saxon capitalist world in which INFLATION is spoken of with real horror and unemployment mentioned only as an afterthought, for a government to announce that it its Minister of Finance and its representative on whatever Japan's public sector salaary commission is called, will call for a rise in all public salaries of 5% and will expect the inflation rate to rise to 5% eventually, would meet only cynicism? In a world in which bond markets are sensitive,for example, to the fact that the Fed's policy stance was endorsed this month by a mere
7-5 vote rather than 8-4 or whatever the numbers are?