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“In the end, say economists, it was not public works but an expensive cleanup of the debt-ridden banking system, combined with growing exports to China and the United States, that brought a close to Japan’s Lost Decade. This has led many to conclude that spending did little more than sink Japan deeply into debt, leaving an enormous tax burden for future generations….Most Japanese economists have tended to take a bleaker view of their nation’s track record [than Western economists], saying that Japan spent more than enough money, but wasted too much of it on roads to nowhere and other unneeded projects….In Hamada, residents say the city’s most visible ‘hakomono,’ the Japanese equivalent of ‘white elephant,’ was its own bridge to nowhere, the $70 million Marine Bridge, whose 1,006-foot span sat almost completely devoid of traffic on a recent morning…”
Host David Gregory: “Senator Ensign, if there is consensus among economists, it’s not about the particulars of the bill but the need to act fast and not delay. Is this bill better than no bill at all?”
