As indicated in my previous post, in its struggle to get back to reality, Japan has finally brought in a new breed of politician who is actually delivering on the campaign promise of bringing real transparency to how government spends the peoples' money.

In the following link Howard Davidowitz lays out how our current problems (artificially low interest rates and a bailout culture, to name a few) are similar to those that have dogged Japan for two decades.

In their search for answers, the Japanese sought advice, no less, from the same guy who now has our president's ear, Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House's National Economic Council, and he's been singing a different tune recently.

Is it overly optimistic to think that maybe we can learn from the experience of others and not take the same long, hard road back to recovery?