The World’s Economic Visionaries Can't See Past Tomorrow

As the world’s most powerful central banks meet this week, one thing is apparent: They’re in survival mode. Little else matters for economic policy beyond weathering the coronavirus pandemic. The risk is that policy makers commit to a range of measures without an exit strategy.

This is nowhere more apparent than Japan. On Monday, the central bank introduceda number of crisis-busting policies: abandoning limits on purchases of government bonds, doubling the target for buying corporate debt and commercial paper, and easing the commitment to 2% inflation. The latter puts to rest the career-defining goal of Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, whose massive expansion of quantitative easing since 2013 had been framed around that objective. Steep cuts in forecasts for growth and consumer prices now make 2% seem unattainable before the end of his second five-year term in 2023.