Success or failure of Abenomics hangs precariously

IT HAS been argued so many times that Japan's Abenomics policies have "failed" that they surely ought to have been consigned to the rubbish heap of history by now. And yet they live on, in ever-changing form reflecting the chameleon-like nature of prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Is Mr Abe becoming desperate, trying one policy option after another in a vain attempt to pump up the economy so that he can fulfil his dream of restoring Japan to a perceived former glory, while hiding this latter intention behind the screen of promoting economic recovery?

Was the launch of Abenomics in 2012 a non-starter from the outset - a case of "flogging a dead horse" (or at least an ageing society) and getting the Bank of Japan to lead that horse to water in the form of abundant monetary liquidity when it clearly had no appetite to drink?