Japan Currency Minister: World entering 4-8 year recession

[Bloomberg]  The world is entering a recession that may last up to eight years as the U.S. heads toward a “lost decade” similar to Japan’s slowdown in the 1990s, said Eisuke Sakakibara, formerly Japan’s top currency official.

“The world is set for a long-term structural slump reminiscent of the 1870s” when average annual growth was about 1 percent, Sakakibara, who is a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, said today at a conference in Tokyo....

Sakakibara became known as “Mr. Yen” during his 1997-1999 tenure at the Ministry of Finance for his efforts to influence the yen rate through verbal and actual intervention in the currency markets.