In the late 80s, Japan was the Godzilla economy. Its output had grown 50-fold in the space of a generation, and Japan had seemingly overtaken the US as the most hi-tech nation. For many observers it was just a matter of a decade or so before Japan would become the world's biggest economy and its third superpower. But, of course, things didn't turn out that way. Instead, in 1990 Japan's stock market and property market both crashed spectacularly, leaving two decades (and counting) of economic stagnation in their wake. The more recent giddy rise of China's dragon economy is chillingly familiar. And many sceptical ... (full story)