Japan's global impact

The Japanese equivalent of the Vix, Wall Street's "fear gauge", is very high, but no worse than after Lehman's collapse. The unwinding of the yen carry trade against the likes of the Brazilian real and Australian dollar hurts, but is not even as bad as last year's Greek crisis, let alone 2008. James Mackintosh, investment editor, analyses the implications of the powerful financial forces at work in the aftermath of Japan's triple disasters.