The world economy needs Japan

DETROIT (AP) -- A week after the disaster in Japan erupted, its impact on automakers around the world is worsening.
Most of Japan's auto industry is shut down. Factories from Louisiana to Thailand are low on Japanese-made parts. Idled plants are costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars. And U.S. car dealers may not get the cars they order this spring.
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Comment: Some things get only appreciated when they're gone. Very few have given Japan the credit it deserves. The contribution of Japan to global wealth can hardly be overestimated. Too bad that the Japanese authorities adopted the wrong economics since the 1990s. They should have known better by their own experience. What will bring down Japan is not the sad natural catastrophe, what will bring down Japan now in the face of this tragedy is the bad economics that its government has applied over the last two decades.