In the wake of Japan?s cascading disasters, signs of economic loss can be found in many corners of the globe, from Sendai, on the battered Japanese coast, to Paris to Marion, Ark.
Container ships sit in the Pacific or at docks in Japan, wary of unloading tonnes of pork and steak because of that nation?s fractured electric grid. Any break in the ?cold chain? of refrigeration can spoil meat.
LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the luxury goods maker, shut more than 50 of its stores in Tokyo and northern Japan. Swedish carmakerVolvo, was working with a 10-day supply left of Japanese-built navigation and climate control systems.
The uncertain economic picture has mirrored the churning developments in Japan as it tries to recover from the devastating earthquake and tsunami. On Sunday, even as workers made some progress in stabilising the situation at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the government said there were new signs of radioactive contamination in some agricultural produce and livestock.
Uncertainty hangs like a cloud over the future of the global and American economy. Only weeks ago, many economists foresaw a quickening of the recovery. Now tsunamis, radioactive plumes, West Asian revolutions, a new round of the European debt crisis and a still weakened US economy could derail a tenuous bounceback in the US, Europe and Japan.
Some global ills, like the spike in oil and food prices, can be quantified. But a clearer picture depends on indicators yet to come, like the March unemployment numbers and trade numbers.
?The problem is not Japan alone ? it?s that Japan reinforces all the negative repercussions and our own weak recovery,? said Stephen S. Roach, non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia. Only a few weeks ago, economic forecasters suggested first-quarter growth in the US would exceed 4%, and similar estimates edged toward 5% for global growth. Those estimates now seem in danger of being outdated.
Economists point to the uncertainty created by reactors number 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the stricken power station in Japan and say it adds to a sense of global foreboding.