This article is an on-site version of the Free Lunch newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Thursday and Sunday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here , or explore all FT newsletters Welcome back. In the past few years, the global economy has been battered by a succession of shocks, from wars and rising protectionism to a steep jump in interest rates. Fears of a recession have lingered throughout. But history offers perspective. Excluding the pandemic, there hasn’t been a synchronised global contraction since the 2008 financial crisis. In fact, recent decades stand out for their long, uninterrupted stretches of economic growth. In this edition, I explore why that resilience could be less reassuring than it sounds. “Recessions have got rarer through time,” says Jim Reid, global head of macro research at Deutsche Bank. “The US has only seen four recessions since 1982. But over the previous...
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Why Japan's election matters for the world Our columnists look at the implications of the Feb. 8 vote on their regions Nikkei Asia columnists February 4, 2026 05:05 JST Sanae Takaichi, Japan's prime minister and leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, attends an election event in Tokyo on Jan. 27, the first day of campaigning for the Feb. 8 lower house election. © Reuters Four regular columnists for Nikkei Asia take a look at Japan's Feb. 8 lower house election, and discuss what the implications of the poll will be for their respective regions. China would prefer a weakened Takaichi David Tingxuan Zhang is a Washington, DC-based analyst at Trivium China, a strategic advisory firm. The views expressed here are his own. Japan's upcoming election carries profound implications for regional politics, and the stakes are particularly high for Japan-China relations. Since November, the bilateral relationship has experienced what may be its most rapid and dramatic deter...