Liquidity trap? part II
2008-12-30 · Original WordPress address
This one needs a caption: There was a sign describing this construction project as building a fish spawning pathway. As you can see, they're tearing out the old fish spawning pathway to build this new one. I should mention that the government agency that funds such projects had its prefecture headquarters across the street from the construction.
We were in Japan for 21 days and I'd say, besides the usual "Japanese" stuff, the thing that struck me most was the number and size of infrastructure projects, e.g. bridges, dams, railroads, etc.
We got lost driving in the middle of nowhere one day on a one lane road winding through the mountains. In 30 or so kilometers we drove through two or three villages with a total population of at most 100. Along that route there were three major infrastructure projects --- realigning the road, erosion control, a new bridge --- that must of had budgets in the tens of millions.
In other news, the Japanese government just approved a $132,000,000,000 stimulus package.