The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have upended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left-all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.
The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male- domiated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Janpan's rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs.
