Ever since Japan’s banking crisis began in 1990, the country has been in a liquidity trap, with central bank rates close to zero, and from 1998 to 2005 the price level declined by more than 4%. Japanese governments have tried to overcome the slump with Hansen’s recipes, issuing one Keynesian program of deficit spending after the other and pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio from 64% in 1991 to 171% in 2008.
从1990年日本开始发生金融危机以来，这个国家已经陷入流动性的陷阱，央行利率接近为零。1998年至2005年期间，价格水平下降了4%。日本政府曾经尝试使用汉森的方法来克服衰退，接二连三地发布凯恩斯式的赤字开支方案，把债务/GDP比率从1991年的64%拉高到2008年的171%。