Japan's unsustainable debt growth - IMF and BoJ's unbelievable level of incompetence

The IMF is now getting concerned about Japan's enormous and unsustainable debt:

Japan Debt May Increase to 250% of GDP by 2015, IMF Says

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s sovereign debt may rise to 250 percent of gross domestic product by 2015 from 227.1 percent this year, according to a forecast by the International Monetary Fund.

The average of 29 developed nations may rise to 110.2 percent from 97.8 percent this year, Washington-based IMF said in a report released yesterday.

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said Japan’s government must pursue a credible fiscal program starting next year, including increasing the 5 percent sales tax.
[...]
Finance Minister Naoto Kan has said the government needs to draw on Greece’s fiscal crisis to contain a gross debt burden that the IMF says exceeded twice the size of gross domestic product last year. Europe’s deepening fiscal woes prompted the region’s policy makers and the IMF to unveil an unprecedented rescue package last week amid growing scrutiny of sovereign debt.
[...]
Policy makers are considering targeting a budget surplus by 2020 or a reduction of the budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP from the current 9.4 percent, a government official said last month.
Kan said the government should cap next year’s bond sales below the record 44.3 trillion yen ($482 billion) budgeted for this year.
[...]
The IMF maintained its growth forecast for Japan from April of 1.9 percent expansion this year and 2 percent growth in 2011. The fund said the Bank of Japan should consider further measures to combat deflation.
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The Bank of Japan policy board starts a two-day meeting tomorrow. The bank pledged last month to help lenders provide credit in an effort to what Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said would nurture the growth potential of an economy hampered by a declining population and productivity.
[...]
Consumer prices excluding fresh food, the BOJ’s key gauge, will rise 0.1 percent in the year ending March 2012, the bank said last month. The figure dropped 1.2 percent in March. The central bank has said that beating deflation is a “critical challenge.”

The IMF and the BoJ amaze me by their level of denial and incompetence:

• Debt growth and government spending do not create wealth nor any kind of real economic growth. You'd think they would be able to draw this conclusion after 20 years of trying?
• Japan is on due course to default, but yet, what does the Finance Minister suggest? To cap next year’s bond sales below the record 44.3 trillion yen ($482 billion) budgeted for this year.
• Japan is on due course to default, but yet, what does the Prime Minister suggest? To get a surplus by 2020 OR to limit the deficit to 3 percent of the GDP. These guys are geniuses !
• Japan has been more or less in deflation for 20 years, and the interest rates have been at or close to 0.25% for ever now, government debt has ballooned to 150% of GDP, but what does the IMF suggest?  The fund said the Bank of Japan should consider further measures to combat deflation.
• Japan has been more or less in negative economic growth for 20 years, but during the worst economic crisis of the century, what does the IMF forecast? The IMF maintained its growth forecast for Japan from April of 1.9 percent expansion this year and 2 percent growth in 2011.
• Do you imagine they would for one second consider cutting spending? No, let's increase the sales tax by 5% instead!