Some doom and gloom from the World's 2nd largest economy

"There's no question that this is the worst recession in the post-war period," Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told a news conference.

However, he struck a cautious note on large scale spending, saying the government could not get "addicted to pain killers".

Even though Japan has avoided much of the initial fallout from the U.S. credit and housing market meltdown, its economy contracted at an annualised rate of 12.7 percent -- three times the fall in the United States, at the epicentre of the global turmoil."

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINT7441220090216?rpc=44

And in China there is much happy happy joy joy due to huge increases in credit availability. Well, some are happy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINPEK35528420090212?rpc=44&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0