RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/land-of-the-rising-unease-11554333457

Japan is joining much of the world in facing weaker economic growth, but in one respect it’s unique. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems determined to make it worse by imposing a tax increase later this year.

This week’s survey of business confidence from the Bank of Japan makes for bracing reading. Confidence among large manufacturers fell to 12 from 19 in December, the steepest decline since 2013. Smaller manufacturers shared the gloom. This follows anemic retail sales and weak growth in industrial production in February after several months of contraction. The economy eked out GDP growth of 0.8% in 2018 and may struggle to match that this year.

Foreign pressures aren’t helping Japan, including President Trump’s trade war with China, which has Asian economies caught in the crossfire. Japan’s export-dependent economy remains vulnerable to slower growth in Europe and China.

Yet domestic problems are also in play. Mr. Abe’s economic revival program, Abenomics, still hasn’t fully launched as it enters its eighth year. He delivered more government spending and an unprecedented monetary blowout, but the policy reforms intended as the “third arrow” of the plan never took flight. This is weighing on investment and productivity growth.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13994/russia-venezuela

Russia was considering deploying strategic bombers full-time in Venezuela, according to the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, as reported by Moscow Times. The Russian media outlet also reported that an agreement had been reached between Moscow and Caracas to allow the deployment of Russian aircraft at a military base Venezuela’s Caribbean island of La Orchila, where Russian advisers were dispatched in December.

It is urgent for Washington to act before Russia and Venezuela reach their imminent formal military agreement. At the same time, NATO membership should be offered to Brazil, a major ally, and economic aid should be provided to Columbia.

“[China and Russia] back Maduro to the hilt because they have much to lose if his leftist government falls. Both maintain crucial military facilities in the country… In recent months, China, the regime’s largest creditor, has been digging itself in deeper. In September, Beijing extended Venezuela another $5 billion in credit. Russia has also loaned the country billions.” — Gordon G. Chang, Gatestone Institute.

After the landing of two Russian aircraft in Caracas on March 23 — one an Ilyushin Il-62 passenger plane transporting 100 ground forces and the other an Antonov An-124 military cargo plane carrying 35 tons of materiel – U.S. President Donald J. Trump said that “Russia has to get out” of Venezuela.

In January, two months before this arrival of Russian military personnel and equipment in Venezuela, two Russian Air Force Tu-160 strategic bombers flying over the Arctic region near the North American coastline were detected and escorted out of the area by Canadian and U.S. Air Force jets.

Although it was not clear where these Russian bombers were headed, a similar incident had occurred a few weeks before, when two of the same type of Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers landed outside Caracas — sorties indicating that these, too, were headed to Venezuela.