Then they realized that their holdings in liquid and low-return assets far exceed what is needed to avoid the type of speculative runs that East Asia experienced in 1997, and Russia in 1998. After all, why hold US T-bills with a meager 5% return, German Bunds with a 4% return, or Japanese government bonds with a 0.5% return when you can acquire foreign firms, invest in real assets, stock markets, or higher-yielding corporate bonds?