This book is about Japan’s 15-year long recession and how it affected current theoretical thinking about its causes and cures. It has a detailed explanation on what happened to Japan, but the discoveries made are so far-reaching that a large portion of economics literature will have to be modified to accommodate another half to the macroeconomic spectrum of possibilities that conventional theorists have overlooked.
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- The Holy Grail of Macro Economics
Chapter 1 What kind of recession has Japan been through?
Chapter 2 Characteristics of balance sheet recessions that should be kept in mind during the recovery.
Chapter 3 The Great Depression was also a balance sheet recession.
Chapter 4 Monetary, foreign exchange, and fiscal policy during a balance sheet recession.
Chapter 5 Yin and Yang economic cycles and the Holy Grail of macroeconomics.
Chapter 6 Pressure of globalization.
Chapter 7 Ongoing bubbles and balance sheet recessions.
Chapter 8 World in Balance-Sheet Recession.
Appendix: Thoughts on Walras and macroeconomics.
Index.
