Japan’s central bank has taken a page from the European playbook and implemented negative interest rates. Wait. Who cares about Japan? Japan has been in a funk, it feels like, since the Cubs last won the World Series (1908, if you care). Everything else about Japan’s economy, what does it matter here at home?

Because Japan is us.

And that ain’t good.

Japan has put the force of Atlas into moving heaven and earth in hopes of jump-starting its impotent economy. And yet … Japan’s economy remains impotent. No matter how many hundreds of trillions of yen Japan has thrown at resuscitating its economy over the last two-plus decades, the thing lays on the gurney like a brain-dead accident victim, with all the relatives gathered around and praying to a god who’s trying to tell the Japanese, “Your prescription for survival is stupid!”

Which is exactly what’s happening in America on a bit of a lag.

Why do I say “another domino down”?

Because we’ve seen a lot of dominos fall in recent weeks, and they all reveal one increasingly obvious probability: The Federal Reserve cannot — and will not — raise interest rates. Honestly, I am coming around to the view that we might not see another interest-rate increase in America for a generation.

The European Central Bank is pledging to open up the floodgates and pour every euro it can print into the economy. China is purposefully depreciating the yuan to counterbalance U.S. dollar strength that has undermined the Chinese economy. The economy here in America — despite the prevarications of Obama and his economic spin doctors, as well as Wall Street simpletons who are either blind or stupid or both — is racing toward recession. The manufacturing economy is contracting.

Employment gains are slowing, and the jobs created are largely crap. Business sentiment stinks. Historically high corporate profits are getting pinched. The dollar is much too strong for exporters, who are reporting horrible numbers.