Learn the Lessons from Japan's Great Recession with New Macro Economics Guide
DUBLIN, Ireland--(Business Wire)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0924b0/the_holy_grail_of) has announced the addition of the "The Holy Grail of Macro Economics: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession" report to their offering. Japan's "Great Recession" lasted from approximately 1992 - 2007 and finally provided the economics profession with the necessary background to understand what actually happened during the US recession of the 1930s. The discoveries made, however, are so far-reaching that a large portion of economics literature will have to be modified to accommodate another half to the macro economic spectrum of possibilities that conventional theorists have overlooked. In particular, Japan's Great Recession showed that when faced with a massive fall in asset prices, companies typically jettison the conventional goal of profit maximization and move to minimize debt in order to restore their credit ratings. This shift in corporate priority, however, has huge theoretical as well as practical implications and opens up a whole new field of study. For example, the new insight can explain fully the precise mechanism of prolonged depression and liquidity trap which conventional economics - based on corporate profit maximization - has so far failed to offer as a convincing explanation. The author developed the idea of yin and yang business cycles where the conventional world of profit maximization is the yang and the world of balance sheet recession, where companies are minimizing debt, is the yin. Once so divided, many varied theories developed in macro economics since the 1930s can be nicely categorized into a single comprehensive theory, i.e., the Holy Grail of macro economics The policy implication of this new discovery is immense in that the conventional aversion to fiscal policy in favor of monetary policy will have to be completely reversed when the economy is in the yin phase. The theoretical implications are also immense in the sense that the economics profession will no longer have to rely so much on various rigidities to explain recessions that have become the standard practice within the so-called New Keynesian economics of the last twenty years. Key Topics Covered: What kind of recession has Japan been through? - Structural problems and banking sector issues cannot explain the 1990s recession - The bubble's collapse triggered a balance sheet recession - Government spending bolstered the economy - Debt minimization and monetary policy Characteristics of balance sheet recessions that should be kept in mind during the recovery - Emerging from a balance sheet recession - Tax receipts during a balance sheet recession - Interest rates after a balance sheet recession - Proclaiming the need for more monetary policy easing only demonstrates a lack of understanding of the recession The Great Depression was also a balance sheet recession - Why has economics overlooked the balance sheet recession? - The end of independent monetary policy - A balance sheet recession perspective of the Great Depression - There is more than one kind of recession Monetary, foreign exchange, and fiscal policy during a balance sheet recession - The problem with unorthodox monetary accommodation - We must leave a healthy economy for the next generation Yin and yang economic cycles and the integration of macro economics - Bubbles and balance sheet recessions are part of the economic cycle - The mistake of applying yang policies during a yin cycle - What both Keynes and the monetarists have overlooked - Towards a unified economic theory The state of economic discussion in Japan - Appraisals of Krugman - Criticism of the definition of a balance sheet recession - Those with no direct knowledge of Japan should be ignored - Having experienced a bubble, Japan must show the world how to respond to a balance sheet recession Challenges awaiting the world economy - Changes in the global economic environment - The US is also awash in money - Oil prices and US policy - The current global economic environment Appendix: Neoclassical economics has not given enough thought to why money exists - Money as a medium of exchange - Economic welfare implications of the use of money - Conclusions For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0924b0/the_holy_grail_of Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 press@researchandmarkets.com Copyright Business Wire 2008
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