Worse than Kobe, in more ways than one

On the first working day since the Tohoku Pacific earthquake shook Japan, the world’s third-largest economy opened to blackouts and continued efforts to locate unaccounted-for people. At midday, Tokyo Electric Power Tepco announced that a third reactor had lost its cooling capacity, which could lead to overheating and an explosion similar to two blasts at its other reactors.

But the Bank of Japan and the financial industry as a whole worked hard to exude calm in the aftermath of the worst earthquake and tsunami in living memory for the people of Japan. We wrote yesterday about how bankers went back to work on Friday. On Monday, the Bank...