His head was required by Ryutaro Hashimoto in order to justify the prime minister's desperate reversal of his policy of fiscal retrenchment, and to get the necessary bills through parliament.

ECONOMIST: In Japan, he went

At the other are those who side with the IMF, which last week prescribed a course of fiscal retrenchment for the world, softened with a commitment by central banks to extended easy monetary policy and perhaps even more expansion of their balance-sheets.

ECONOMIST: Global monetary policy