Don't Shoot the Messenger  Does Portugal Have Its Own “Shortage
Of Japanese” Problem?  In a number of posts recently I have
highlighted the impact of declining workforces on economic
growth (here, for example, or here, or here) and the way the
policies persued to address the Euro debt crisis are having the
impact of  accelerating the movement of young people away from
the periphery and towards the core (here, or here) thus
accelerating the decline in their working populations and
exacerbating their growth problem. This issue has been already
highlighted strongly in Japan’s ongoing crisis, and has to some
extent come to be known as the “shortage of Japanese” problem
following Paul Krugman’s memorable use of this expression to
explain  why Japan’s economic performance seemed so poor to so
many.  Recently I came across a post by Portuguese blogger
Valter Martins, where he looks in some depth at what is
happening in Portugal. Really, despite the use of some technical
details his argument is extraordinarily straig