Here in Japan, people are dour as the Bank of Japan cut its growth outlook for fiscal 2012 to +2.0 pct from its October estimate of +2.2 pct. It cited heightened concern about the eurozone crisis crimping the global economy, and the strong yen.
Shortly after that, the government said it's likely to fail in its goal of balancing the budget by 2020 even if it proceeds with the wildly unpopular plan of doubling the national sales tax. Societe Generale's chief Japan economist quipped, "To balance the budget, the [sales tax] rate needs to rise further. We've passed the point where we can soft-land the fiscal situation. The question is how hard the landing is going to be."
Pretty hard by the looks of it. (SeekingAlpha)
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