Richard C. Koo is the Chief Economist of Nomura Research Institute, the research arm of Nomura Securities, the leading securities house in Japan. Consistently voted as one of the most reliable economists by Japanese capital and financial market participants for nearly a decade, he has also advised successive prime ministers on how best to deal with Japan's economic and banking problems. He served as an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and was a Doctoral Fellow of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Author of many books, including Balance Sheet Recession: Japan's Struggle with Uncharted Economics and its Global Implications, and a visiting professor of Waseda University, he was awarded the Abramson Award by the National Association of Business Economics, Washington, D.C. in 2001.

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

Chapter 1 Japan's Recession 1

Chapter 2 Characteristics of Balance Sheet Recessions 39

Chapter 3 The Great Depression was a Balance Sheet Recession 85

Chapter 4 Monetary, Foreign Exchange, and Fiscal Policy During a Balance Sheet Recession 125

Chapter 5 Yin and Yang Economic Cycles and the Holy Grail of Macroeconomics 157

Chapter 6 Pressure of Globalization 185

Chapter 7 Ongoing Bubbles and Balance Sheet Recessions 221

Chapter 8 World in Balance Sheet Recession 253

Appendix: Thoughts on Walras and Macroeconomics 295

References and Bibliography 309

Index 321

Reviews from the previous edition

"...provide fascinating insights into the problems of
Japan...interesting thesis" (Wilmott.com/blogs, August
2009)

"...the Japanese policymakers who told everyone the US was
in danger of falling into a prolonged period of economic weakness
were right. To understand why this is true, you need to read a
brilliant book by Richard Koo of the Nomura Research Institute."
(Financial Times, January 2009)

"...the definitive book on Japan's decade-long recession in
the 1990s." (USA Today, March 2009)

"Books about the current global economic crisis are being
written and published by the truckload. But few - perhaps
none - are worth reading... Richard Koo, chief economist
at the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo, a think tank attached to
Japan's biggest investment bank, watched Japan's 'lost decade' from
an excellent vantage point: he was close enough to understand the
detail, data and ways in which both corporate and political
decisions were made, and independent enough to be able to analyse
what happened in a reasonably detached and cool way."
(Survival, May 2009)

"A must-read to an understanding of what Japan went through and
what the United States and Europe may experience is Koo's latest
book The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan's
Great Recession." (The Edge Financial Daily, December
2008)