自民党は、ますます政権末期の様相を呈してきた。民主党が相対第一党になることが確実になった今、その支離滅裂なマニフェストをまじめに批判するときが来たようだ。WSJでRichard Katzはこう書いている：
A major cause of anemic consumer spending is the drop in real wages by 7% from 2001 through 2008. A major factor in the wage slide is the rise of "irregular workers" who now comprise a third of the workforce and are typically paid lower hourly wages even when they do the same job as regular workers. Various labor deregulations advertised as overcoming Japan's notorious labor market rigidity have instead led to wage austerity.

The DPJ remedy is to ban wage discrimination between regular and irregular workers and to institute a 30% increase in Japan's low minimum wage over the next three years. These approaches are contradictory because the latter could end up reinforcing rigidities that hurt both GDP growth and new hiring.

And that requires structural reforms that unleash creative destruction, such as greater labor mobility, more competition in private industry, greater opportunities for entrepreneurs, and more efficient financial markets
今までEconomistやFTの意見でも紹介してきたように、民主党がとるべき経済政策はほとんど自明である。Katzが心配しているのは、その当たり前の政策を、社会主義者の残党の多い民主党が実行できるのかどうかということだ。