Takahashi's success in 2010 was all the more satisfying because he had only just returned to full fitness after a serious knee injury that sidelined him for a year.

CNN: Daisuke Takahashi: Japan star on the importance of being 'gorgeous'

At junior high school he met Utako Nagamitsu, who has remained his coach ever since -- she is currently working alongside the Russian Nikolai Morozov, who is now back on Takahashi's team after their initial split back in 2008.

CNN: Daisuke Takahashi: Japan star on the importance of being 'gorgeous'

This is in marked contrast to the 1930s when Keynes, Hjalmar Schacht (Hitler's Keynes) and Korekiyo Takahashi (Japan's finance minister) all understood how deficit financed growth could work inside economies fighting for their lives using trade and currency competition, and sealed off from the collapsing global finance system.

BBC: Thinking outside the 1930s box