LONDON — Monetary policy that cannot get traction; weak banks that cannot or will not lend; an economy trapped in a twilight world of low growth, haunted by the spectre of deflation.
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If this combination sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

The eurozone, still drowning in debt bequeathed by the great financial crisis, increasingly resembles Japan in the 1990s as it struggled with its own balance sheet recession brought on by the bursting of an almighty asset bubble.

Japan was long viewed with pity for its failure to shake off its torpor. Its central bank was criticized for policy timidity.

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