Sometimes the lack of self awareness is stunning. Commenting on day-to-day currency moves, the Vice Finance Minister said: "we won't comment on day-to-day currency moves," before going on to discuss planned interventions the government is ready to make if day-to-day currency moves get "excessive" or reduce the yen's value to certain key levels.

Their government wants to give the impression that their country's dramatic economic inflation is actually not very significant, certainly not significant enough to warrant comment from the finance ministry. But they also *need* to comment because that impression won't create itself.

Keynesian economics teaches us that an actual state of economic stability emerges from people believing in a state of economic stability, and instability emerges from the opposite belief. So you can stabilize economic conditions by convincing people there are no problems -- "there's nothing worth commenting on" -- and that if there are any, they are easy to fix: "as for the massive ongoing debasement of your money, don't worry, we can fix that through an intervention -- i.e. by spending yet more money."