During the Asian crisis, some crisis-hit economies raised domestic interest rates persistently in an effort to appreciate their currencies. Although Asian currencies eventually stabilized, it is still debated whether high interest rates contributed to the restoration of stability. Correlation...

Japan's macroeconomic problem has yet to be properly diagnosed. Throughout the 1990s, policy makers could not decide on the proper macro economic measures to combat the country's severe economic slump. We propose a unified explanation, with deep historical roots, of why aggregate private demand...