Japan seems to be stuck in a classic liquidity trap: it needs lower real interest rates to boost demand, but because of deflation they are stuck painfully high.

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Mr Mayer thinks that the eastern part of Germany, where economic growth is even lower than in the west, is in a different kind of trap.

ECONOMIST: The sick man of the euro

Two, the poverty trap is also a severe marriage penalty, making it virtually economically impossible for lower income classes to marry.

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