Worthwhile Reads for October 28, 2013

- Don't be put off by the title. David Pilling, the incredibly skilled former bureau chief for the Financial Times, has published the fairest portrait of Abe Shinzo available in the English language (Link).

It makes one's mouth water for the book on Japan Mr. Pilling has coming out in January.

- Over at the East Asia Forum a three-part series of succinct articles on facets of Abenomics from Hugh Patrick of Columbia University. (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

- Though defensive, Mark Adomanis' blog post for Forbes on Russia's reputed disastrous demographics (Link) is fantastic for the graph comparing the number of life births in Russia and Japan (Graph). Generation by generation, Japan's and Russia total number of births have been declining, with the peaks in each successively lower swing in Russia coming about 12 years after a similar peak in Japan. The head shaker is how the generational climb in births in Russia births since 1998 (the build up out of the collapse of the ruble thanks to the echo of the boomer echo - i.e., the grandchildren of the post-1945 baby boom) had no equivalent in Japan, unless one counts the ripple around 1995.