In Aesop’s fable, the grasshopper spends its summer singing, dancing and consuming. The assiduous ant toils away storing food, despite the grasshopper’s entreaties to join the fun. Winter descends. The ants have plenty; the grasshopper starves; the moral is so clear even an insect can get it.
Or is it? Are there circumstances where profligacy is forgivable, or do the ill-prepared deserve their fate? Does civilisation advance or stagnate when workers support a leisured class? Are the monopolist, resource-hoarding ants the real villains?
The trade and tariff crisis of 2025, for Japan in particular, presents a new set of ant-grasshopper dilemmas. Which of the two best describes corporate Japan as it walks the tightrope between China and the US? Which, as winter looms over the global economy and global order, is the better positioned arthropod? And which, as dismal deals are discussed and bad accommodations made, will investors decide to put their money on?