If Paul Krugman Were a Woman

If Paul Krugman Were a Woman

He would be Noriko Hama.

Posted Thursday, July 2, 2009 - 10:04am

As with many economists, Hama is excellent on the diagnosis but not as sure-footed when it comes to a cure. What is to be done? She turns to the white board and draws two acronyms with an arrow between them: SLICS and SLYCS. The global economy needs to move from a SLICS (So Long as I Can Survive) mentality to a SLYCS (So Long as You Can Survive) mentality. Central banks and governments should worry less about stimulating domestic demand for domestic goods and more about stimulating demand for traded goods. Toyota workers should buy Nissan cars, and vice versa. "The U.S. has no business saying 'buy American'; it should be saying buy non-American," she said. "It's this kind of a huge mental leap that is actually required if we are going to move out of this situation we're in." Slow food and locavores have their place, Hama says. But she'd prefer that China and Japan export shiitake mushrooms to each other. Japan can send its most delicious, most expensive ones to China, where the free-spending nouveau riche will pay big money for them, while China can mass-produce cheaper ones that can be consumed by Japan's yen-pinching masses. "We'll have a mushroom barbecue."

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