Japans’s Scary Lesson on Slashing Interest Rates
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April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Christine Lagarde wants her staffat the International Monetary Fund to examine what might happento the global economy when central banks begin to raise interestrates. She’s wasting their time.
If Japan has taught us anything, it’s that slashing ratesto zero and beyond is a lot easier than returning them tonormalcy. Japan is on its sixth central-bank governor since itsbubble burst in 1990, and like his predecessors, Haruhiko Kurodais doubling down on quantitative easing. Why? Politicians,bankers, investors and businesspeople alike get addicted to freemoney all too easily and clamor for more.