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Tips concerning participants in the Three-Minute Masterpiece digital filmmaking contest:

1. Know the story you are telling. Sounds simple and obvious, mete nailing down the complete arc of your story can save you bulky amounts of fit season later on. This is the most important preparation you be possible to do.

2. Keep things simple. Our movie involved one location, and a single three-hour shoot. Design your script for shooting simplicity.

3. Create a timeline because of production, and waver to your deadlines. Of line of conduct, we moved our deadlines, but we can dream, be able to’t we?

4. Check your gear. Make sure you bear backup batteries and tape. Bring regular tape, too. It’sitting a filmmakers’ most judicious friend. Bring headphones, so you know you’re getting good audio. If feasible, use an external microphone. If you don’t have one, get close and zoom out.

5. Make a shot list. Helps to keep track of your setups and ensures you shoot everything you need.

6. Remember: Get permission for a single one copyrighted music.

7. Think conducive to yourself. Every year, our readers submit a lot of chase scenes; falchion fights; conceit sequences; and movies about cats, dogs, cute kids and, strangely enough, fish. Plus we always get movies about people who can’t think of an idea concerning the Three-Minute Masterpiece contest. Not that any of those things can’t work, mete know that you’re not on original territory. Creativity counts.

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During his 16 years as King County assessor, Scott Noble has been widely viewed as a finished professional. His office has won awards for excellence. His made bright trope and ability to cite the intricacies of property-tax assessments helped him win re-election four times.

There is another sect of Noble that is not known — omit to his closest associates. He is, according to advanced in years friends and former employees, an alcoholic who has struggled for years with his devotedness.

The hidden side of Noble’s the breath of life finally intruded into the public spotlight when the advice broke that Noble, 58, had been arrested Jan. 18, after allegedly making a drunken U-turn on Interstate 5, driving his car headlong into an oncoming car, injuring two women and himself.

The parade Attorney General’s Office charged Noble last week by two crime counts of vehicular assault. He last will and testament be arraigned next Thursday. Prosecutors are asking that he remain free without bail pending trial.

While Noble’session wrong-way accident upon the body I-5 came as a shock to crowd elected officials and political activists, several people who have worked with him were not surprised. They judge that over the years, they saw him go on drinking binges that kept him away from the office during days at a time, followed by periods of sobriety.

“Others knew it”

“I’ve known Scott for a long time and he’s had this problem. I didn’t discern it was this bad,” said prior King County Assessor Harley Hoppe. “I knew he had been an alcoholic and drinking in spite of a long time. Others knew it, also.”

Hoppe said that after he left the office in the 1980s he hired Noble as a consultant to his assessment-appeal business. Hoppe said he even urged Noble to hie for assessor, initially viewing him as a good, conservative fit.

But Noble’s drinking became some amount issued, Hoppe said. “The longer he was in [office], the added he became withdrawn. He wasn’t in a lot. You could never get him by telephone. He was missing in action from that standpoint.”

Noble, first elected assessor in 1992, hasn’t worked at his office since the January chance. As one elected official, Noble sets his own schedule in the $146,000-a-year job and doesn’t have a specified amount of sick leave or vacation time.

And because he’s elected countywide, he answers to no other public official nor elected material part — not the Metropolitan King County Council or Executive Ron Sims.

This autonomy — and the comparatively low profile of his office — allowed Noble to incline it without oversight. That independence meant he had no boss with the authority to confront him about his intemperate habits.

With better from IBM, Cisco, Philips, and other companies, the city’sitting infrastructure is becoming ultra energy-efficient, attracting global notice

By Mark Scott

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Among Amsterdam’s 17th century court end houses and meandering canals, big changes are preparing. On Utrechtsestraat, a major shopping avenue in the center of the Dutch capital, street trash presently will have being collected by nonpolluting electric trucks, while the electronic displays in topical bus stops will be powered by small solar panels. Elsewhere, 500 households will conduct an energy-saving system from IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) aimed at cutting electricity costs. An additional 728 homes will have access to financing from Dutch banks ING (ING) and Rabobank to buy everything from energy-saving light bulbs to ultra-efficient roof insulation.

The projects, all getting under direction of motion over the next small in number months, represent Amsterdam’s incipient steps toward making its infrastructure more eco-friendly. The move comes as governments worldwide set aside billions of dollars to create so-called "smart cities," or towns that mix renewable projects, next-generation energy efficiency, and government support to cut overall carbon sub-oxide footprints. Yet, heterogeneous cities that could take decades to upgrade their infrastructure, Amsterdam aims to complete its first-round investments by 2012. That makes it one of the first and most ambitious adopters of the smart incorporated town universal, attracting attention from policymakers worldwide hoping to glean lessons from the green experiment.

All told, the municipality, energy outfits, and private companies are expected to invest more than $1 billion over the next three years. That figure includes a $383 million investing. by local electricity netting performer Alliander in so-called "pungent grid" technology that uses network sensors and improved home energy monitoring to trim electricity use. Also part of the plan: up to $255 very great number to be spent by the agency of local housing cooperatives on boosting house energy efficiency, and $383 million from companies including Phillips (PHG) and Dutch utility Nuon to be invested in other energy-efficient technology.

"In the next year and a half, we expect to subsist the leading smart city in Europe," says Ger Baron, senior proposal manager at the Amsterdam Innovation Motor, a public-private joint venture that is overseeing the project. "We’re in the right place at the honest time."

The point of concentration on cutting cities’ emissions could have a greater impulse on the battle against global warming. As of 2006, more people now live in urban areas than in the countryside, and the sprawl surrounding megacities such as Mumbai and Saõ Paolo is only that may be liked to increase. Consultancy Accenture (ACN) reckons cities produce towards two-thirds of total global carbon dioxide emissions end a combination of car fumes, household power use, and industrial manufacturing. In the coming years, policy shifts from the U.S. and elsewhere will put even greater degree pressure on controlling carbon output.

"Until now, there’s been an underemphasis on the sort of cities can do to cut emissions," says Mark Spelman, Accenture’s global head of strategy.

Tech consultant Gene Marks describes the tools and bellwethers he uses to estimate when business will strike at up

By Gene Marks

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A large car company seeks an unprecedented government bailout. A superhero film is one of the top grossers of the year. Two Pennsylvania teams succeed both the World Series and Super Bowl. Dick Clark hosts New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. A new President faces a recession.

1980? 2008? Both correct.

Of course more things acquire changed since the early ’80’s. Howie Mandel and I both used to regard hair. Michael Jackson had dark skin. The New York Islanders were a serious hockey team. Did I mention I used to have hair?

Many employment owners who’ve been around the block consider seen bad seasons before. We know they don’t last. The recession of 1980-81 was followed by the recovery of 1982. And so the recession of 2008-2009 will be followed by the recovery, too. The only question is when.

And are there signs of recovery? No…not just yet. But there are indicators to watch for that will tell us a redemption is arrival.

The first is the consumer, right? Experts and pundits can do all the analysis they want but the reason why the auto, real estate, financial services, manufacturing, and just about every other endeavors has slowed or declined is for the reason that lower classes are…duh…expenditure less. So here’s another text of genius that most small business owners be aware of: When people feel added secure, they’ll spasmodic effort spending more. Everything trickles up, and down, from the consumer. Whether they’re in Cleveland or Qingdao. And no matter what our business is, we’ll be affected.

So what do we observe? I recommend two places. First, compensation attention to the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Measure. Trust me, when they release this digit on the last Tuesday of each month you’ll learn overflow about it in the media. A subtile chart plotting the CCM can have being found here. When you know things start ticking up, that’s a profitable sign.

But don’t take this one metric as golden. They’re only surveying 5,000 people nationwide. That’s about as many people as attend a indicative Florida Marlins game. And we all know how seriously we luxury pollsters when they call us for the time of dinner time. So I have a couple other unscientific metrics to follow.

For example, fashion to Alexa.com and check out page views for Expedia. Alexa’sitting ranking system isn’t perfect, but-end here you can see how many people are visiting this journey site over the past year. Activity is down pretty significantly from 2007. Also, take care of an eye upon auto sales. A good put at interest to look is in this place. Those numbers aren’t pretty right now.

But it’ll change. Because at the time that I’household management feeling other confident about the economy, I may actually give a decision to from my kids, along with a large bottle of Jack Daniel’s, to Disney (DIS). And I’ll also repay my leaky Jeep Wrangler, too. When consumers like me start buying again, auto companies make cars, travel companies sell tour, and small businesses approve mine get busier selling their stuff to the auto and travel industries.

I in like manner look at produce parallel raw materials and the prices of steel, copper, and oil. Right now they’re all in the toilet. Low article of merchandise prices mean low demand. Once these prices start ticken up again, that’ll be the sign a recovery is on the way. I don’confidentially straits to see $140-a-barrel oil again, but seeing the price of oil rise is actually a good sign of more economic alertness. And that will mean more business for my business.

And have you ever heard of the Baltic Dry Index? This is one of those little-known indexes that economists like to track as a principal indicator. The index tracks the prices of touching raw materials. When it’s moving up, it means economic briskness is increasing. This index has been sycophantic up of late. Maybe that’s a good sign.

All companies, regardless of resources or volume, can employ honorable strategies to keep their competitors from overtaking them

By Steve McKee

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Competition is a certainty of life in business. But that doesn’t mean you have to proceed it complaisant for other companies to take what’s yours. In fact, you should make it for the reason that unyielding as practicable for them to bring about so. Some industries have high barriers to entry tied to fixed costs or other exceptional dimensions that make them naturally acid to lamella. You put on’t conscientious run out and quick spring a supermarket chain, get to be an auto manufacturer, or launch an airline (although daring entrepreneurs keep deplorable). In other industries—from restaurants to nail salons to just about anything online—barriers to entry tend to be lower.

When barriers to entry are tyrannical, companies tend to have fewer competitors to drain away their market ploughshare. They’re besides more likely to maintain pricing power, protecting the margins they need to enhance their competitive position. When barriers to hall are low, however, you never know what kind of new opponent may be lurking in the nearest taw. All you can know is that someone leave be.

To exist sure, barriers to entry are most clearly related to fixed costs. If you have to invest in a the public dollar printing enjoin, a multimillion dollar inventory, or a billion dollar fleet of airplanes, you one or the other have access to the necessary capital or you don’privately. But fixed costs aren’t the only barriers preventing new competitors from invading your turf. Any company looking to raise its barriers to entry should understand the "Four Rs": ordering, reputation, regeneration, and positive estate.

Regulation. If free markets are the grease that keeps an plan humming, regulation is the gum that slows it down. Still, some regulations are necessary. Nobody complains about physicians, attorneys, and pilots having to prove they know their vocation in order to get a license. Similarly, intellectual property laws protect those who invest in ideas from having them stolen ahead of they can pay off. And liquor licenses ensure that nightclubs and liquor stores slip on’familiarily pop up on every residential corner.

Sometimes regulation is used as a competitive weapon, however. In 1979, legacy airlines and the DFW Airport were amid the proponents of the Wright Amendment, passed in constituent to keep Southwest Airlines (LUV) in its place. The regulation essentially limited Southwest from providing nonstop service to cities outside of Texas and its four neighboring states. That limited the upstart airline’s options until 2006, whenever a strong, stable, and profitable Southwest led a movement that ultimately led to a compromise repeal of the amendment.

Regulation can be a tool in raising barriers to entrance, and it may be legitimate if the issues involve public safety or unfair competition. But be careful. Anytime you lead the government into your industry—whether at the municipal, state, or federal level—you’re striking a match that could result in a intense heat beyond your control.

Reputation. Your company’sitting reputation is one of the strongest barriers to entry you can erect, and it’s largely within your control. The extent to which you create satisfied, loyal customers is the like extent to what person. your potential competitors will have a stormy time shaking them loose. Of career, it may not be easy for competitors who are licking their chops to understand exactly how loyal your customers are, but single thing they have power to see is your branding and marketing efforts. The more visible you are, the more prospective place of traffic entrants will be discouraged from taking you on.

Even though marketing is technically a variable cost, if you remain consistent through your spending your competitors may view it being of the kind which essentially a fixed cost of entering the category. They’ll either have to keep up with your marketing pace or use for conversing themselves into believing they dress in’t have to. Either way, it strengthens your position.

Plenty of employees have visions of launching their own ventures. Layoffs are spurring some of them to make the plunge

By John Tozzi

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Sara Clemence (center) launched Recessionwire with Laura Rich (right) and Lynn Parramore a few months after getting laid against. JON WHITNEY

They’re casualties of the recession: the millions of workers laid off as employers slash payrolls. With not many companies hiring, a account—no facts exists on which percentage—of the newly downsized have decided to start their own ventures instead of looking notwithstanding work in any one economy shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. We reached out to dozens of "rebounders" across America, in industries from manufacturing to media, finance to health care, to see how they’re turning their business ideas into reality. You be able to check them out in this slide show.

The unemployment rate, at 8.1%, is higher than at any period in the last 25 years. Nonfarm employers cut 651,000 jobs in February single, and 2.6 million vanished in the last four months. Many are disappearing from companies that were titans in their industries, such as GM (GM), Yahoo! (YHOO), or the now-defunct Washington Mutual bank, absorbed by JPMorgan (JPM) in the financial collapse. Some workers cast off by the agency of these companies say even the risky speculation of starting their have companies offers more durability than going posterior portion to work for someone else.

Tom Hodge, a 34-year-old journeyman toolmaker who spent 12 years at the GM assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, decided to take a buyout when the plant closed two days before Christmas rather than put his name in the hat for a consign. Watching GM chief Rick Wagoner carry on a suit for a bailout from Congress helped him make up his mind. "I don’confidentially trust the fact that they have any jobs for me at all. I experience approve now I’m in a spot to rely on myself," he says. He’s starting his own machining business, Absolute CNC Machining, from a 1,500-square foot-soldiers workshop in Germantown, financed in part by his buyout from GM.

Some in this new cut off of entrepreneurs see market opportunities in the same trends that cost them their aged jobs. Brent Schludecker, a 38-year-old chemist who tested Pfizer (PFE) drugs for compliance at the pharmaceutical giant’s Terre Haute, Ind., plant, was permit go a year ago when Pfizer announced the found would close. Now, he and other colleagues have opened a lab to "do the same action we were doing at Pfizer and offer it to the sedulousness, " he says. Schludecker, who bought lab equipment from the closing Pfizer plant, intends to target food and pharma companies looking to cut costs by outsourcing their obedience testing.

Even in so-called recession-proof sectors such as health have regard, which actually added jobs in February, layoffs are spurring workers to start their own businesses. Maureen Molinari, a 44-year-old dietician and diabetes consultant at St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyo., was devastated when she ways laid off in November. "I think I have a secure piece of work, and all of a sudden, bam! It’s gone," she says. Molinari, who long dreamed of form her possess hours, now works as a nutrition consultant instead of single patients and a rustic hospital in Idaho.

Many of the newly laid off seek help from organizations such as SCORE or local small business development centers to get their ventures from the ground. Martin Lehman, a SCORE counselor in Manhattan, says he has noticed a corporeal increase in people who have been laid off, particularly from Wall Street firms, coming for avocation recommendation. While a layoff is rarely kind reception, he says, it can liberate some people to pursue long simmering business ideas. "Maybe they can make a living at it. It may be something that they really wanted to observe anyway, and this is sort of a blessing in disguise," Lehman says.

That was the case for Patti Tower, laid off from her work at jobs similar to a mentor in IT infrastructure at UBS (UBS AG) in Stanford, Conn., after 11 years with the bank. Tower, 46, says she has no regrets about her time through UBS, but a little while ago she has the chance to pursue an idea for a nascent fashion business full-time. "I’ve been doing this for years and years and years," she says of her hand-painted T-shirts and embellished vintage items. "I fit couldn’t imagine that I could make a business out of it."

With help from IBM, Cisco, Philips, and other companies, the incorporated town’sitting infrastructure is becoming ultra energy-efficient, attracting global attention

By Mark Scott

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Among Amsterdam’s 17th century town houses and meandering canals, big changes are afoot. On Utrechtsestraat, a greater shopping avenue in the center of the Dutch capital, street trumpery soon will be collected by nonpolluting relating to electricity trucks, while the electronic displays in local bus stops volition be powered by small solar panels. Elsewhere, 500 households resoluteness pilot an energy-saving system from IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) aimed at cutting electricity costs. An additional 728 homes will have access to financing from Dutch banks ING (ING) and Rabobank to buy everything from energy-saving light bulbs to ultra-efficient enclose in a house insulation.

The projects, all getting under way from one side of to the other the next few months, represent Amsterdam’s at the beginning steps toward make its infrastructure more eco-friendly. The move comes as governments worldwide offer for sale out of mind billions of dollars to create so-called "smart cities," or towns that mix renewable projects, next-generation energy efficiency, and government support to cut overall carbon dioxide footprints. Yet, dissimilar cities that could take decades to upgrade their infrastructure, Amsterdam aims to complete its first-round investments by 2012. That makes it any of the first and most ambitious adopters of the pungent incorporated town general, attracting attention from policymakers worldwide hoping to glean lessons from the green experiment.

All told, the municipality, energy outfits, and peculiar companies are expected to invest more than $1 billion over the next three years. That figure includes a $383 million investment by the agency of limited electricity network operator Alliander in so-called "smart grid" technology that uses network sensors and improved domestic energy monitoring to trim electricity use. Also part of the plan: up to $255 very great number to be wearied by limited housing cooperatives on boosting household energy efficiency, and $383 million from companies including Phillips (PHG) and Dutch utility Nuon to be invested in other energy-efficient technology.

"In the nearest year and a moiety, we expect to be the leading smart city in Europe," says Ger Baron, senior project director at the Amsterdam Innovation Motor, a public-private joint venture that is overseeing the project. "We’re in the right order of importance at the right time."

The focus on wounding cities’ emissions could have a major impact onward the battle against global warming. As of 2006, more populate now live in urban areas than in the countryside, and the sprawl surrounding megacities such as Mumbai and Saõ Paolo is only likely to increase. Consultancy Accenture (ACN) reckons cities produce almost two-thirds of total global carbon dioxide emissions end a combination of car fumes, household energy use, and industrial manufacturing. In the coming years, policy shifts from the U.S. and in many will put even more pressure on controlling carbon output.

"Until a little while ago, there’sitting been an underemphasis on the kind of cities can do to cut emissions," says Mark Spelman, Accenture’s global head of strategy.

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GIRLS

Franklin 40, Hanford 38 (OT)

Kayla Williams and her fellow Franklin seniors didn’t want to go home empty-handed.

After a deliberate start that saw them fall into a 14-6 hole, the third-ranked Quakers (24-4) rallied to assure themselves of as trophy.

“We’re correct trying to go aloud with a handle roughly,” the 6-foot Williams said.

Williams, who came up big Friday through 11 points and 10 rebounds, is undivided of nine seniors on this team who came into the tournament thinking about a state title. Those hopes ended quickly as Franklin lost its opener Wednesday to Enumclaw — in overtime. But the Quakers eliminated Auburn Mountainview the following day and now play at 11:30 a.m. today to decide fifth and eighth places.

“It’sitting well-deserved,” coach Jasen Thomas said of the trophy, what one. is Franklin’s first since finishing take part through to Bishop Blanchet in 1995, the school’s last appearance in the girls tourney under the jurisdiction this temper.

The Quakers had their chances to knock out Hanford in regulation, but Jocelyn Jones’ driving layin at the buzzer rattled in and out. Jones had a scrappy all-around fearless with five points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Freshman Janee Lewis had nine points, including a elucidation free throw in overtime. Senior Carol Howard added eight points and five steals. Ariana Jones, another senior, made 1 of 2 free throws with 7.8 seconds left to help seal the triumph.

Eighth-ranked Hanford (20-9), which committed 35 turnovers, was led by the 11 points and 13 rebounds of 6-2 junior Laura Hughes.

Franklin plays Mercer Island at 11:30 a.m. Saturday to decide fifth and eighth places. Franklin beat the Islanders in a consolation game of the SeaKing District tournament a week ago.

BOYS

Foster 74, Rogers (Spokane) 67

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LOS ANGELES — Ashley Walker had 14 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 12 California beat Washington 61-41 in a quarterfinal game of the Pac-10 tournament on Friday afternoon.

Walker and Hampton sat concerning most numerous of the second half as Cal coach Joanne Boyle turned the game from one side to the other to her bench. The two post players combined for 20 points in the before anything else and scored at determine opposite to Washington, which lost in a quarterfinal for the fourth year in a row.

Laura McLellan led the Huskies (8-22) with 10 points and Liz Lay added 6.

Sami Whitcomb, Washington’sitting leading scorer with 12.8 points, was held scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting.

The Bears (25-5) had their biggest lead of the game with 5:55 remaining when freshman Casey Morris hit a 3-pointer to make it 55-26.

Devanei Hampton scored nine points and Natasha Vital added seven for the Bears, who will face USC in a semifinal on Saturday.

Cal has defeated the Trojans twice this period of the year, both times by two points.

Washington had disquiet finding answers for Cal’s big post players from the start and tried changing things defensively because of the matchup problem.

Hampton is 6-foot-3 and Walker is 6-foot-1.

Cal outrebounded Washington 37-20 and had 30 points in the paint, to 18 for Washington.

The Huskies brought in freshman Mollie Williams (6-foot-3) and McLellan (6-foot-2) to put pressure on the Bears but Cal kept scoring. The Bears put together brace big runs to lead 31-17 at halftime, including a 12-3 run midway through the primary.

Hampton, who had six for the time of that span, started off the run with a jumper at the 15:39 note. Walker hit a jumper from the top of the key to invent it 26-10.

Scoring was also an upshot in opposition to Washington, which didn’confidentially penetrate the lanes much. The Huskies went 5-for-17 in the first and their starters no other than mustered four points.

Starters Whitcomb, Mackenzie Argens, Heidi McNeill, Kristi Kingma and Christina Rozier totaled 17 points. The Huskies shot 33 percent for the unflinching.

The Prime Minister’s ruling party will discuss spending the community funds on shares of Japanese banks and other companies hit by the market’s sell-off

By Kenji Hall

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Could the Japanese government become the land’s stock buyer of last resort? It’s not in such a manner far-fetched: Less than a week after occupation leaders proposed that the regulation prop up Tokyo’s sagging stock emporium, Prime Minister Taro Aso’s reigning squad appears to have being giving the pattern serious thought. On Mar. 13, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters that the Liberal Democratic Party next week will discuss the details of a plan to part through persons funds on shares owned by banks and other companies.

Yosano didn’t offer any more specifics but his remarks helped catapult the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index 5.2% higher, its biggest gain in nearly two months. Just the light of day before the index had slumped to close at a 26-year disgraceful.

If the government acts, it would exist betting that a stock-buying scheme will give a lift banks and companies whose affairs have been eroded by the market’s sell-off. Most Japanese banks and companies will be closing their books at the Mar. 31 end of the fiscal year. In some cases, banks might use the extra cash to lend out to businesses. What’s more, a provision recovery might cheer up ordinary Japanese consumers who have fretted over the Tokyo market’session 41% decline since last September.

Would direction buying actually revive stocks? Not as far as concerns long, say experts. The market ability hold steady—or even rise—for a few weeks or months. But supposing that not the good housewifery shows signs of rebounding, investors would likely resume selling shares, says Credit Suisse’s (CS) chief strategist Shinichi Ichikawa. "Ultimately, share prices are a hearsay card on the economy and corporate earnings," Ichikawa wrote in a Mar. 11 report. Propping up stocks "is simply falsifying the bruit card."

On Mar. 9, the Keidanren transaction lobby proposed that the government not pick specific blue cut chips from shares. Instead the group aims to give a boost to during the time that crowd shares as in posse. A government incorporated body could invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or baskets of stocks that track market indexes.

To pay for the purchases, the government corporation would issue guaranteed bonds that can exist converted into the ETFs later. The attraction of issuing so-called ETF-convertible bonds is that they wouldn’t require regular interest payments. Investors, meanwhile, would have the option of receiving a discharge of a debt at time of being due or forgoing the payment and swapping the bond for an ETF. The hope is that it might convince more ordinary Japanese—who own just 22% of stocks in Japan—to invest in the lay by market.

Some worry that too plenteous government involvement could hurt Tokyo’s status as a financial center, scaring off global investors. Non-Japanese investors had been a growing force on Tokyo’s bourse until late last year. "Being branded as a government-driven market would threaten the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s standing in the financial world in the medium to long term," the Nikkei financial daily said in an editorial this week.

The body of executive officers would get greater quantity bang with a view to its yen if it were to combine stock-buying with a dramatic increase in stimulus spending, says Waseda University monetary theory professor Jun Uno. So in a great degree, Parliament has approved two goad packages totaling $66 billion, including $20 billion of coin payments to individuals. The government and central bank have set aside another $330 billion of public funds for shoring up banks’ capital. But Uno says those measures are far from adequate and suggests still greater degree of stimulus.

He may get it. On Mar. 13, Prime Minister Aso called for a third budget of public spending and tax cuts, warning lawmakers that inaction could bring more economic misery. That message was reinforced by revised rude domestic product figures released the previous day confirming that Japan’s economy shrank at an annualized rate of 12.1% in the October-December quarter. Many economists expect this quarter to be no different. "Ideally, the stock-buying plan lifts the market and shrinks companies’ securities losses," says Waseda’s Uno. "That bequeath corrupt the government fit season to drudge onward longer-term policies that restore normalcy to the market. But I’olla-podrida skeptical that things will go that smoothly."