Could stock market prices in the euro zone fall as much as in Japan since 1990?

- "Since the early 1990s, Japanese stock market prices have been divided by four, despite the marked improvement in corporate profitability since the late 1990s."
- "This steady decline in the Japanese stock market can be ascribed to:
• the memory of the stock market collapse in the early 1990s;
• lacklustre growth, which diverts investors from the stock market- even if this is irrational ;
• the fact that domestic savings are used above all to finance fiscal deficits."
- "But similar developments are (or will in all likelihood be) witnessed in the euro zone: very sharp fluctuations in share prices, sluggish domestic demand, fiscal deficits that are difficult to reduce and that monopolise savings."
Natixis Flash Economics 362 20100715