When I argue against quantitative easing (QE) and debt-fuelled Keynesian boosts, I'm often met with a glib one-word response: "Japan". Many "experts" have been brain-washed into thinking that unless we print money with abandon and prostrate ourselves with more state debt then the UK, too, will endure "a lost decade".
This is dangerous nonsense. Japan didn't stagnate in the 1990s because it refused to do QE and a massive fiscal expansion, or because it waited and did both half-heartedly. Japan suffered a 10-year slump precisely because its too-big-to-fail, politically-connected "zombie" banks were allowed to stagger on, acting as a massive drain on the broader economy. And, much as it pains me to write it, that's precisely what's happening in the UK.
