This Time Around, Asia's Got to Help Itself

Are battles won by corpulent, middle-aged men? Of course not. It is a job for the under-35s. So why do we now expect the rich, self-satisfied, overweight middle-aged triumvirate of the U.S., Western Europe and Japan to lead a revival of world economic growth?

Population growth in Japan is already at zero, and its people are steadily aging. Europe is heading toward that fate quite rapidly. To believe that aging populations can achieve sustained, accelerated growth is absurdor a symptom of the arrogance of economists who ascribe low growth almost entirely to failures in economic policy, although policy...