Central Banks Bring Some Normality to Asia
Crises are wrenching, and instructive — but not the only thing going on. Three central banks in Asia displayed some much-needed calm.
Not everything is unravelling all the time.
Photographer: William West/AFP/Getty Images
On a good day, central banking can be a hum-drum business. Borrowing costs and forecasts are nudged around a touch, but preferably not at all. Unfortunately, it’s the bad times that become emblematic — and addictive. It fell to a diverse set of officials this week to remind us that there isn’t a crisis everywhere, all the time.
The ructions of each decade are sometimes so seared into our brains that it’s hard to have another point of reference. The Asian financial collapse of the late 1990s, the subprime meltdown and Covid all left major scars. They pushed monetary policy from the business pages to the forefront of national decision-making. Not everything has to be nearly as dramatic, threats by US President Donald Trump to undo the global trading system notwithstanding.