Karel van Wolferen offers an alternative, and much more pessimistic, view of the recent Japanese elections.

Evelyn Rodriguez hosts the Carnival of the Capitalists, with lots of great links and great commentary, from the failure of cost-benefit analysis in New Orleans to the business potential of weblogs. This edition may inspire me to make the Carnival a regular read.

This weekend's elections in Japan were seen as a referendum on economic reform, and reform won by a landslide. Prime Minister Koizumi's gamble was daring for any politician, and may be unique in post-war Japanese history: he gave up his own majority in parliament by expelling dissident party members, thereby forcing new elections and taking his case directly to the people.