When politicians talk about propping up stockmarkets, it is usually because share prices are falling. In this respect, Japan is no exception. On October 17th, Japan's financial authorities said they would delay a capital-gains tax reform scheduled for next April because it might hurt the country's sickly equity markets by dampening individual investors' appetite for shares. This hunger is more than a little reduced anyway. On October 18th the Nikkei 225 average dropped below 15,000 for the first time in 19 months. In the past two weeks it has dropped by more than 8%—almost 30% off this year's high. This is a bear market within a bear market: the Nikkei is down some 60% since its record high in December 1989. For all the politicians who say the economy is recovering, investors are clearly unconvinced.
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