Ricard

Roubini's Forecasts for Asia Recovery Are Flawed

This article seems to think that the tail wags the dog. The argument that vested interests are strong enough to fight for "tradition" assumes that "tradition" has held up rather well during these trying times. If the foundation begins to falter, the structure built on top of it will also crumble. Those that do not adapt to such change are the ones that tend to die out in the end. I agree that Roubini's arguments have serious flaws, but not due to what Mr. Gamble points out. I'd much rather go with Bo Peng's analysis here:

seekingalpha.com/artic...

Japan is a bit of a different story than China on many fronts. They have no choice but to export. Most of what they consume is imported in the first place, so in order to balance their trade, they are forced to value-add to at least a portion of what they import in order to remain economically viable. This is not really a matter of tradition but survivial.